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"L 'Alcoa is now ours. " The workers occupied the factory and continue to work

Video will not have answers

PORTOVESME (CAGLIARI)
- "Excuse me, we joked." Thus, ironically, plays the announcement came yesterday from the top of Alcoa: Christmas in the aluminum factory Portovesme close. How the agreement, brokered by the Minister Scajola, was signed in Rome just last Thursday. The workers of Alcoa, in a procession in front of Palazzo Chigi, caught that day were the police baton to defend the work and the survival of the factory. It seemed that they had a first result brought home. After meeting with the Minister and the unions, in fact, the leaders of the U.S. company had said it would withdraw its decision to close the factory. But yesterday morning, in a meeting with Hugh Cappellacci, PDL President of Sardinia Region, the company announced a dramatic turn around. A Portovesme tension immediately rose to the highest levels. The workers occupied the factory and have blocked with large piles of raw aluminum gates, blocking within two executives of Alcoa, the plant manager and production manager. In a video posted online, have indicated that the site will remain occupied until the company does not withdraw its diktat. In the film you see two workers with blacks hood fell on his face saying: "We have seized the factory with all the managers within. The declaration of Alcoa to close the factory can not be implemented. Remove the seizure only after the Alcoa has withdrawn its decision. " The problem to solve is the cost of electrical supplies. The European Commission has not yet stated what the U.S. multinational aluminum must return for subsidized energy prices in 2006 benefited from the establishments Portovesme in Sardinia, and Fusina, Veneto, judged by the EU 'aid was unlawful. " There is talk of some 300 million €. Thursday in Rome, the corporation announced it would appeal to the European Court of Justice against the decision of the EU Commission and, pending the outcome of the appeal, it would suspend its decision, announced over a month ago, to close the factory. Yesterday hath been understood that it was a colossal joke: Alcoa, said the manager Cappellacci, will stop production in both its Italian plants (which have a production capacity of 194,000 tons of aluminum a year) . Unsustainable, say executives of the multinational, is the uncertainty on the supply for the future of energy at competitive prices and, more immediately, the negative financial impact caused decision by the EU Commission.

procedures to stop the plant should begin immediately, ending - as estimated by Alcoa - by the second half of December. For the European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, the facilities granted to Alcoa, which depends on the workplace of 2,500 people between direct and indirect, have distorted competition. Now the company's workers to blackmail to pressure the Italian government, with the aim of achieving the EU what the EU does not seem in any way willing to concede: the confirmation of the preferential tariffs and withdrawal of penalty. Alcoa serves the workers as human shields. It is difficult to understand by the words uttered yesterday by Klaus Kleinfeld, the president of the company: 'It is a black day for European heavy industry. Especially in a time of economic crisis, the decision of the EU is difficult to understand. Skilled jobs and will be lost indefinitely, facilities will be closed and companies in Europe will not be able to compete more. " "We will continue to use all the tools - added Marcos Ramos, president of Alcoa Europe - so that all our staff can return to work. We want to thank our employees and their representatives for having done an outstanding job. " In short, you are good, the bad guys are in Brussels, but if we do not cut the power to pay you you: all in fun.

Workers Alcoa, without even hearing the leaders of the union of Sardinia, have responded by occupying the factory. Have downloaded heaps of revenue before the raw material, aluminum bars. Assembly decided not to suspend the production cycle. Before the gates are alternately teams that ensure the blocking of exits. At the plant manager, Mario Guerrero, and the director of maintenance and production, Sergio Vittori, until the late evening was not allowed to leave the factory. Workers, administrators and technicians are holed up in the meeting room. "We have decided - they did know - that no one enters and nobody leaves the factory. We remain here until they find an agreement. " Alcoa has made her case on Tuesday also heard the national secretariat of the Fiom: "We believe - according to a statement - that the production of primary aluminum in the two plants Alcoa in Italy must be safeguarded, fielding all possible. Alcoa is the entire Italian production of aluminum and covers 18% of national demand. If this production was less, even companies that should perform the subsequent processing supplies abroad, with an obvious cost penalty and with the consequent risk of production currently carried in our country and, therefore, thousands of jobs job. " The Secretary of the CGIL Sardinian Enzo Costa, said that "the union will not tolerate closing Portovesme. Alcoa lays bare the story a kind of politics based on the promises and the effects of media, rather than on the construction of concrete answers. We ask the President of Sardinia Region, Cappellacci, an act of courage. Put the Berlusconi government to fulfill its responsibilities. "

Constantine Cossu

Liberation taken from November 21, 2009