The unions are asking for a meeting with Innoway, controlled by MSC and Innofreight. The timing of the investments is under scrutiny.
Trieste – The reindustrialization operation that in Trieste will replace the production of Wärtsilä marine engines with the production of Innoway freight wagons has not yet taken off, but it already needs a check-up. Institutions and unions are not satisfied with what has been achieved so far by the consortium composed of the giant MSC and the Austrian partner Innofreight, so much so that they have delivered a sort of ultimatum, requesting them to come to Rome by the end of the year to illustrate in detail to the Ministry of Enterprises the solutions that will be needed to overcome a series of hitches the timeline is encountering.
Under scrutiny is the timing of the investments, because Innoway has so far allocated 70 million instead of the over 100 million planned. And then there are the issues related to the management of the plant, with the unions denouncing the company’s lack of attention to safety (so much so that they organized a first symbolic two-hour strike after a non-serious accident that occurred in the factory) and to relations with workers’ representatives.
The real point is that at the moment the management is almost entirely in the hands of the Austrian partner, who brought with it specific experience in wagon construction, with MSC perceived as too distant from the project. A ministerial table will be needed to get things back on track, after the Aponte group’s announcement of its entry into the former Wärtsilä area had raised appreciation in the area, for the possibility of saving 260 jobs, with a project less strategic than diesel engine production but still linked to the national leadership role that the port of Trieste expresses in the railway sector.
Yesterday, a meeting between the parties was held in Trieste at the headquarters of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, but the issue will be presented again to Mimit within a month. At the ministry, Innoway will have to illustrate its updated industrial plan, also necessary to sign the Development Contract with Invitalia which could be worth at least 10 million. Public resources to which the 15 million already made available by the Region are added to build the railway infrastructures that will be used by Innoway to handle wagons within the FreeEste interport in Bagnoli della Rosandra.
Fim, Fiom and Uilm speak of “critical issues of the conversion project, postponements of the investment timeline, failure to activate the Development Contract and unresolved deficiencies in terms of safety”. In turn, the Region “thanks the trade union organizations for their firm and responsible approach also in light of an already critical situation, aggravated by the recent accident” and will monitor “carefully every aspect of the dispute, placing the protection of workers’ safety as a top priority”.
