Fiat is playing games with the workers. First, it moves production to Poland and tells its employees that they must work hard, be flexible and exceed all production norms to keep their jobs. All is done very well in Tychy – there can be no complaint of the management (… except when unions ask for raises or bonuses for their very productive workers or question work on the weekend.) Tychy plant is Fiat’s biggest and most efficient in Europe.
At the end of last year, we began to hear rumors that now Fiat wants to move jobs to Italy again and since that time there is some fear in Tychy plant. Fiat Polska thinks now it can do as it likes with us. They gave bonuses only 40% of last year, despite the fact that we broke all records in production.
They think people won’t fight because they are afraid they will be the ones to lose jobs. But we are angry. Third “Day of Protest’ of workers in Tychy scheduled for June 17 will not be as polite as the last. What do we have to lose now?
Workers in Italy are being asked to accept worse conditions. All the time, Fiat shows workers that if they don’t agree, they will lose jobs. If they don’t work like slaves, somebody else will. We know that the hard work of our Italian colleagues is taken for granted by Fiat, just like our work was.
We hoped that Fiat unions in Italy would fight. Not so we may keep our jobs in Tychy, but to show resistance to such work conditions. Our unions, our workers, have been weak. We felt we were not in a position to fight, that we were poor, begging Fiat for any job. We let down Italian workers, whose jobs we got. Now the same is happening to us.
Parole Fatti Pensieri