Bologna, November 5, 2021 – La Saga Coffee from Gaggio Montano closes and the announcement of the company, which it occupies 220 people, comes suddenly: “Production stop by March 31 and the definitive closure of the plant by the end of 2022”.
I workers they organized themselves with a permanent prison, all “shocked and dejected: they did not expect it to be decided to close the plant “, the unions report after the assembly.
The Governor of Emilia Romagna Stefano Bonaccini it is peremptory: “We want the recovery to be inclusive and for everyone, here there is no room for unilateral decisions to the detriment of women and men who cannot see their dignity trampled on, leaving them without work. We will do everything to prevent this from happening “, he guarantees.” Already next week, we will convene the top management and the trade unions with the aim of not stopping the activity and protecting employment “, the governor said.” We are with the workers. and the workers and the local community, which especially in a mountainous area cannot afford to step back “, he warns.” The company’s behavior in the face of the efforts made in recent years by institutions, trade unions and economic forces is even more inadmissible. , with investments also arrived from the Emilia-Romagna Region “, concludes Bonaccini.
“It is unacceptable – comments the regional councilor for Economic Development and Labor, Vincenzo Colla -. The Region is ready to open a confrontation with the trade union forces and the leaders of the Saga Coffee. We are close to the workers and we will be at their side to defend jobs and production in a fragile area like that of the Bolognese mountains, which cannot afford to have a social and economic break of this magnitude ”.
“This decision is unacceptable. Both for the efforts made in recent years by institutions, trade unions and economic forces for that company, for which the Emilia-Romagna Region has also supported investments. Both – added Colla – in such a complex and delicate moment where we are trying, together, to get out of the critical situation left us by a year and a half of pandemic. While we are seeing growth in all sectors, it is absurd for a company to announce overnight that it wants to close such a business. The trade unions are absolutely right: there is no market problem, there is only an industrial will to hold a strategic company for the entire territory, which has an important production and many valid skills ”.
The company: “All other solutions are not sustainable”
“Before coming to this decision, Evoca Group has taken into consideration all the viable alternatives to the closure of the Gaggio Montano plant, none of which proved to be sustainable “, this is how Evoca Group explains the decision to close the Saga Coffee. “The company is sorry for the impact that this decision will have on workers, families and local communities, and will undertake to work closely with institutions and trade unions to best support them during this phase “, reads a note from the ‘agency.
The decision, it reads, “is the result of un in-depth market analysis, which highlighted the need to rationalize the industrial structure of the group, due to the production overcapacity that characterizes it, and the impossibility of the Gaggio Montano plant to reach the necessary levels of competitiveness required by the Office Coffee Service (Ocs) segment ” .
The sector of coffee machines for the office, underlines the group, “it has undergone structural changes over the last few years, linked to the strong pressure on prices and the worsening of the competitive scenario”.
Furthermore “the group suffered, already from 2019, from a situation of production overcapacity in Italy and in Europe, with particular reference to the Gaggio Montano plant. “A situation further aggravated by the‘sanitary emergency which weighed on Evoca and the conditions of the Bolognese plant, “where the various measures already implemented to give the plant a perspective are no longer sufficient”.
The unions: “An act of looting, they want to relocate”
The reaction of the unions was immediate: “we consider the decision an act of looting against the workers, as well as a real violence towards the territory that we are not willing to accept”, they say with one voice, recalling how in the face of the inevitable layoffs the Saga Coffee would be starting hiring for the Bergamo registered office which would demonstrate the real motivation for the choice, that of relocate. “It is enough to do a simple market research on espresso coffee machines to understand how strongly this sector is growing all over the world. So there can only be one motivation: to relocate in Romania the production of Gaggio Montano, for the sole purpose of drawing a greater profit“, they explain.
Just a year ago, in 2020, Fim Fiom and Rsu still say, an agreement was signed that provided for voluntary exits, about 50, aimed at securing the Gaggio Montano plant declared, by Saga Coffe itself, strategic within the group. At this point, the unions, who fear the start of the collective dismissal procedure for the 222 workers of the Bolognese site, ask that the discussion move to the Regional Table and that the Emilia Romagna Region itself guarantees the launch of a table at the Bet.
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