After months of twists and turns and a final 18-hour round of negotiations, an agreement was reached on Thursday 6 September to save Italian steelworks company Ilva. The deal, agreed by Italian employment minister Luigi Di Maio, trade unions, the ArcelorMittal group, and the special administrators currently running Ilva, also preserves the future of the firm’s giant plant in Taranto (Apulia), which is regarded as one of the most polluting in Europe. AM InvestCo Italy, which the previous government had appointed to take over the failing steel company has pledged to now employ 10,700 of its 13,000 employees. The agreement, which targets a “relaunching” of Ilva, with a focus on “eco-compatible production which protects the environment and the health of citizens”, will be subject to a vote by employees.
Job preservation. The issue of jobs was a stumbling block until the very final stages and ultimately the persistence of trade unions, particularly the Fiom-Cgil, Fim-Cisl and Uilm, paid off. AM InvestCo, which is majority owned by ArcelorMittal, is to create a new company to take over Ilva’s activities. Having initially proposed taking on 8,000 staff members from Ilva, AM InvestCo then said it would take on 10,100 workers in 2018 and a further 200 in 2021.
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