Meloni calls Ericsson’s CEO and the company withdraws the redundancies

“Following discussions personally initiated by the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, with Ericsson’s senior management, the company has decided to withdraw the collective redundancy procedure affecting 131 workers at its Genoa site.” This has been reported by sources at Palazzo Chigi, who explained that “in the face of the political exploitation that has arisen around the matter, with the risk of fuelling tensions at the expense of the workers”, the Prime Minister “intervened personally, telephoning Ericsson’s Chief Executive, Andrea Missori”. The dispute arose when, in early September, the telecommunications multinational Ericsson initiated a collective redundancy procedure affecting 131 employees in Genoa. This decision, the same sources note, raised “concerns about the impact on employment and the future of the technology and research hub in Genoa”. 

The news was welcomed by the Mayor of Genoa, Silvia Salis. “I appreciate that the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, listened to the workers’ protest during the opening of the Genoa Boat Show, and I thank her for her intervention. This outcome was made possible thanks to the workers’ struggle, which kept the spotlight on the dispute.” Salis took part via video link in the meeting convened today in Rome by the company, attended in person by Councillor Emilio Robotti, and had been following the dispute closely for some time. “The last thing Genoa needs is for multinationals to pull out – having taken all they could and now starting to make people redundant. We cannot afford this,” she said on 15 September at Palazzo Tursi during the City Council meeting, announcing that she would shortly be meeting with the trade unions and that she had also requested a meeting with the company’s senior management. In this context, the Genoa City Council unanimously approved an extraordinary motion signed by all group leaders to express “the utmost solidarity with the 131 Ericsson workers affected by the new redundancy procedure announced by the company on 11 September”. The document committed the Mayor and the City Executive to “take action with the utmost urgency vis-à-vis Ericsson’s owners and management to demand the immediate suspension or revocation of the redundancy procedure, involving the trade unions, the company itself and the relevant institutions without delay, including by requesting a meeting with the Ministry”.

On 16 September, the mayor and the Councillor for Employment, Emilio Robotti, met with the workers and, shortly afterwards, with the company’s senior management in Genoa. “Ericsson’s executives stated that they could not reverse the decision, which forms part of a broader group strategy, and reported that they had begun discussions with the president of Confindustria Genova to identify local redeployment opportunities for the 131 workers,” explains the City Council in a statement. According to the local management, the company is financially sound and has no intention of leaving Genoa: the downsizing would affect only the specific product area in question.” Salis then said: “We will ask Ericsson to clarify what investments it intends to make and what its business plan is for Italy and for the Genoa site.” The mayor therefore also announced that she would be sending a letter to the Ministries of the Economy, ‘Made in Italy’ and Labour.

On 23 September, workers held a protest outside the Prefecture in Genoa, coinciding with the strike called in response to the 131 redundancies that had been announced. During the meeting convened at the Prefecture, Ericsson representatives requested that the City Council and the Regional Authority be excluded from the proceedings. The mayor described this request as "an unheard-of and unprecedented event for our city. “This is a serious institutional slight on the part of the company’s top management, to whom we had guaranteed our full willingness to engage in dialogue regarding a dispute that is crucial for Genoa’s labour market,” continued Salis. “We will be present at every stage of these discussions, side by side with the trade unions and the workers, and we join them in calling for a national round-table coordinated by the government.”

On 1 October, Salis met with striking Ericsson workers who were staging a sit-in outside the entrance to the Genoa International Boat Show on the opening day, reiterating the administration’s support for their cause. In that same context, a minor diplomatic incident arose between Salis and the Prime Minister. During the ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of the Boat Show, the Prime Minister, the president of Confindustria Nautica, Piero Formenti, and the governor, Marco Bucci, were invited onto the stage, whilst the mayor remained in the front row alongside the Deputy Speaker of the Senate, Licia Ronzulli. This exclusion caused institutional embarrassment, which then spilled over into political debate: “I don’t want to stir up controversy,” commented Salis. I would just like to point out that we are on loan to the institutions; the institutions are not ‘ours’. We serve the roles we hold; they do not serve us. We represent the institutions for which we were elected. These are not personal positions; they must not be personalised in any way. But I must say that if the aim, as rumoured, was to take the spotlight off me, I do not believe it was achieved.” A statement from Palazzo Chigi subsequently emphasised that Meloni was “surprised and disappointed to note” the mayor’s absence. It was all apparently due to an organisational error by the Salone: this was the explanation given to the Prime Minister, who subsequently expressed her regret to the mayor herself in a telephone call.

Today at 4:30 p.m. in Rome, at the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, the Ericsson round-table meeting called for by Minister Adolfo Urso took place to address the dispute concerning Ericsson in Genoa. “We are pleased that the company has accepted the Prime Minister’s request, announcing at the meeting convened at the Mimit that it would withdraw the redundancies and initiate consensual procedures, involving voluntary redundancies with severance packages,” said the minister.