Beko in Turkey is not honouring the agreements, and Electrolux remains in limbo. Urso’s challenge

To put it with a pun, it looks set to be a ‘hot’ autumn for fridges. Three key meetings on the Electrolux redundancies are scheduled at the Mimit in September, whilst on 1 October the focus will be on the failure to implement the Beko agreement. The former multinational is the heir to the glorious Zanussi tradition, the latter to the equally famous Merloni and Ignis brands.

The latest news concerns the Turkish group Beko-Arcelik which, according to Fim-Cisl, is failing to honour the 2025 agreements that had governed the group’s reorganisation and were intended to facilitate the ‘integration’ of the acquisition of Whirlpool Italia. The crux of the matter is that the production volumes set out in the 2026 budget are not being met at almost all of the group’s Italian plants (notably Cassinetta, Melano, Comunanza and Fabriano); the promised investments (300 million) have been made at only 20 per cent of the agreed amount; and there is no sign of the new cooking appliances. In short, there are clear signs of growing market difficulties and a further need to overhaul the group’s production strategy – difficulties highlighted in recent weeks by the increased use of short-time working schemes. Massimiliano Nobis, Fim-Cisl secretary, explains: “We are halfway through the agreement’s term and concerns are serious. The plants are not operating at full capacity and, as a result, profit margins are falling. And the transfer of production from Turkey to Italy remains modest. We are well aware that the European market is challenging, but we see a lack of proactive response from the company that we cannot help but criticise.” Since 2021, demand for large household appliances in Europe has fallen by as many as 7 million units, “but precisely for this reason, we cannot give up and postpone any innovation process”.

The suspicion is that the Turks bought Whirlpool Italia solely to dominate the Italian market, prioritising sales of the Beko brand and relegating historic brands to the background. For this reason, the trade union is calling on Minister Adolfo Urso to ensure the agreement is implemented and to take broader industrial policy measures that must cover the entire sector.

Whilst Fim-Cisl is opening the Beko case, what is the latest on the Electrolux dispute? We are currently in the summer suspension period (a move contested by Marco Bentivogli: “It will be worse in September”) and Urso has formally requested that the Swedish multinational present a new business plan when work resumes. Talks at the ministry have seen some minor progress, with the company stating it is partially willing to revise its initial plan, but the employment outlook remains critical. The trade unions are united in pressing both the government and the Swedish group: they maintain that they will only discuss reorganisation of the workforce if production volumes increase; they oppose the switch to a single shift system; and they do not want to hear any talk of closing the Cerreto plant. However, partly due to the summer break, there is a sense of pessimism in the factories.

Those workers best equipped to cope with the external labour market are waiting for the dispute to end with the usual redundancy incentives before moving on, whilst the most vulnerable workers (the factory workers) face a future reliant on social safety nets. In short, a downsizing of Electrolux’s presence in Italy is taken for granted. And in the background remains the mystery surrounding the Swedes’ true intentions: have they already decided to sell to the Chinese firm Midea (this year’s sponsor of FC Barcelona) and are they handling the ‘dirty work’ to secure a better price? Locally, the main concerns centre on the Porcia factory in Friuli, which, without adequate production volumes, will ultimately cease to be viable. Consequently, solutions are being mooted involving mini-reindustrialisation into more dynamic sectors (such as the food industry, where the success of Roncadin’s frozen pizzas is making headlines in the area) or transferring blue-collar workers to companies struggling to recruit staff. There is also talk of setting up a consortium specifically for the Porcia plant, getting the Swedes to hand over the facility for free and producing low-end household appliances. But for now, these are merely preliminary discussions. And, inevitably, they too are very much a summer affair.