Reuters (Milan) - Italy's radical metalworkers union Fiom has called a one-day strike at Fiat plants nationwide for Oct. 21, saying it feared the carmaker planned to further wind down its operations in the country.
The strike was decided after Fiat earlier this week said it was quitting employers' group Confindustria in a row over labour contracts, a move which Fiom says could be a precursor for a gradual disengagement from Italy.
"We are striking to make Fiat stay in Italy," Maurizio Landini, the head of Fiom, told Fiat's union delegates at a meeting in Rome on Saturday.
He said Fiat's shock exit from Confindustria risked worsening labour conditions at Fiat's plants, adding there was a danger the company would cut down on its domestic operations.
Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, who also runs Chrysler, said in an open letter on Monday the carmaker was leaving Confindustria from January next year because the business lobby was hindering his drive for more flexible working practices.
He said a labour deal signed by Confindustria with the unions on Sept. 21 put Fiat at a disadvantage on the international stage, watering down recent legislation meant to make it easier to hire and fire workers.
"Fiat, which is engaged in the creation of a major international group with 181 plants in 30 countries, cannot afford to operate in Italy in an environment of uncertainty that is so incongruous with the conditions that exist in the industrialised world," Marchionne wrote in the letter.
At the heart of the row is how far individual companies can stray from national labour contracts to which Confindustria's members are usually bound and negotiate alternative deals at a factory level.
Marchionne, who is currently also engaged in contract negotiations for Chrysler with the United Auto Workers' union, has introduced new labour deals at two of Fiat's remaining five factories in Italy to cut absenteeism and boost productivity.
Those deals where backed by a majority of workers at the plants, but Fiom -- Italy's biggest metalworkers union -- rejected them, and is fighting against their application in court.
Fiat has made 20 billion euros of planned investments in Italy conditional on unions giving full backing to the new contracts, and Marchionne has threatened to move production abroad.
To counter fears that Fiat planned to shift more production outside Italy, the group said on Monday it would produce a jeep-branded sports utility vehicle at its traditional Mirafiori hub in Turin from the second half of 2013 -- a year later than originally planned -- and confirmed its new Mito car will also be produced at the plant.
It also said a new petrol direct injection turbo engine for Alfa Romeo will be developed in Italy in early 2013.
However, Fiom accuses Marchionne of "turning back the clock on labour relations to the XIX century" and focusing more on Chrysler than Fiat, while failing to make good on its investment pledges for Italian factories.
"We are not seeing any new hires, just a rise in cassa integrazione (temporary redundancy schemes)," Landini said.
Marchionne says the five Italian plants, which employ around 25,000 people, are loss-making and blames rigid labour laws for low productivity.
