15 000 TAKE TO STREETS IN SOUTHERN ITALY

May 17, 2009

"We are Fiat!" was the rallying cry of thousands of employees of the Italian auto giant who converged on May 17 on the group's HQ in north-western Turin to demand job security.

Some 15 000 people from all over Italy, according to organisers, took to the streets to express their fears that Fiat's planned acquisition of General Motors subsidiary Opel in Germany would lead to massive job losses.

Fiat, Italy's largest private employer with a workforce of some 82 000, has long symbolised the country's post-war industrial prowess.

The march's leading banner read: "From north to south, Fiat must not develop without us

'From north to south, Fiat must not develop without us'

."

"We are Fiat!" proclaimed unionist Giorgio Airaudo. "Without us, the managers would not be praised as they are today." He was talking about the group's turnaround when on the verge of collapse and Canadian-Italian Sergio Marchionne took the helm in 2004.

Even though the maverick captain of industry achieved the feat without huge job cuts, protester Francesco Percuoco, 42, told AFP: "We are worried. Marchionne is making alliances overseas that might lead to duplication and therefore plant closures in Italy."

"It's all very well to go shopping abroad, but Italian workers want to know what their future will look like," said Marco Roselli, a Fiat employee from southern Melfi.

Fiat's plans are unclear as it negotiates to take over the European activities of crippled US automaker GM, including Opel, raising deep concerns over potential job losses in Italy and Germany.

According to a plan attributed to Fiat and quoted on Wednesday by Italian and German unions, the auto giant plans to scale back the factory at Pomigliano, close Termini Imerese and an Opel plant in Kaiserslautern in western Germany, as well as others in Britain and Austria.

Fiat has declined comment on the document, but has denied any connection with an earlier planning paper allegedly leaked to the German press that spoke of cutting 18 000 jobs in Europe after acquiring Opel. - AFP