By Gianni Montani
TURIN, Italy, July 28 (Reuters) - The head of carmaker Fiat SpA demanded guarantees from unions on Wednesday that its Italian plants would be able to operate profitably, saying if no deal were possible the group would have to look elsewhere.
Speaking at a meeting with representatives from unions and local authorities, Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said the future of Italy's biggest automobile group and its 20 billion euro ($26 billion) investments in Italy depended on a workable outcome.
'We reaffirm the importance of our investment in the 'Fabbrica Italia' project but we want guarantees that the sites will be able to function,' he said, according to a source present at the talks.
'We are not making threats, but we are not prepared to put the survival of the company at risk,' he said.
According to the text of his speech at the meeting, Marchionne, who also heads the U.S.-based Chrysler group, said Italy was the only country in the world where the Fiat group as a whole made a loss.
Marchionne's comments came at the start of talks over the future of Fiat's largest Italian plant at Mirafiori in its home town of Turin.
The prospect of cuts in jobs and capacity at the site, which employs some 5,800 workers, was raised last week when Marchionne said unexpectedly he planned to shift production of some models to Serbia.
According to the source at the meeting, Marchionne said the decision to move production of the Fiat Multipla and Lancia Musa would not hurt Mirafiori because there was sufficient production of high value models to guarantee volumes.
'The investment won't take anything away from Mirafiori,' he told the meeting.
The government has called on Fiat to maintain production at Mirafiori, saying Italy's future as an industrial centre was potentially at stake, but it has stopped short of offering concrete incentives to the company.
As well as the talks over Mirafiori, Fiat is also engaged in implementing a new agreement with unions at its plant at Pomigliano near Naples.
On Tuesday, it registered a new company to manage employees at the plant in a deal which would allow it to offer more flexible contracts to employees who have agreed to new terms.
The deal, seen as breaking the mould of rigid labour rules in Italy which economists say have hampered productivity and growth, was agreed by 62 percent of the workforce at the Naples plant last month..
(Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by David Holmes)
($1=.7698 Euro) Keywords: FIAT/ (Reuters Messaging james.mackenzie.reuters.com@reuters.net, Rome Newsroom +39 06 8522 4351; james.mackenzie@reuters.com) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
TURIN, Italy, July 28 (Reuters) - The head of carmaker Fiat SpA demanded guarantees from unions on Wednesday that its Italian plants would be able to operate profitably, saying if no deal were possible the group would have to look elsewhere.
Speaking at a meeting with representatives from unions and local authorities, Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said the future of Italy's biggest automobile group and its 20 billion euro ($26 billion) investments in Italy depended on a workable outcome.
'We reaffirm the importance of our investment in the 'Fabbrica Italia' project but we want guarantees that the sites will be able to function,' he said, according to a source present at the talks.
'We are not making threats, but we are not prepared to put the survival of the company at risk,' he said.
According to the text of his speech at the meeting, Marchionne, who also heads the U.S.-based Chrysler group, said Italy was the only country in the world where the Fiat group as a whole made a loss.
Marchionne's comments came at the start of talks over the future of Fiat's largest Italian plant at Mirafiori in its home town of Turin.
The prospect of cuts in jobs and capacity at the site, which employs some 5,800 workers, was raised last week when Marchionne said unexpectedly he planned to shift production of some models to Serbia.
According to the source at the meeting, Marchionne said the decision to move production of the Fiat Multipla and Lancia Musa would not hurt Mirafiori because there was sufficient production of high value models to guarantee volumes.
'The investment won't take anything away from Mirafiori,' he told the meeting.
The government has called on Fiat to maintain production at Mirafiori, saying Italy's future as an industrial centre was potentially at stake, but it has stopped short of offering concrete incentives to the company.
As well as the talks over Mirafiori, Fiat is also engaged in implementing a new agreement with unions at its plant at Pomigliano near Naples.
On Tuesday, it registered a new company to manage employees at the plant in a deal which would allow it to offer more flexible contracts to employees who have agreed to new terms.
The deal, seen as breaking the mould of rigid labour rules in Italy which economists say have hampered productivity and growth, was agreed by 62 percent of the workforce at the Naples plant last month..
(Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by David Holmes)
($1=.7698 Euro) Keywords: FIAT/ (Reuters Messaging james.mackenzie.reuters.com@reuters.net, Rome Newsroom +39 06 8522 4351; james.mackenzie@reuters.com) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
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