The unions were convened tomorrow, Friday 19 February, at 2.30 pm for a meeting on the former Ilva at the Ministry of Economic Development.
The new minister Giancarlo Giorgetti will be present.
Do not stop production because it is not just the Taranto plant at stake but the future of the steel industry in Italy
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This is the cry of alarm launched by both Confindustria and Federacciai after the sentence of the Lecce TAR which orders ArcelorMittal to shut down the hot area of the Taranto plant in compliance with the ordinance on emissions of the mayor Rinaldo Melucci.
The forced shutdown of the plants, underline legal sources close to the ArcelorMittal dossier, "without the availability of a nitrogen and methane mixing station, would not allow the furnaces to be kept in heating and would result in their collapse and therefore the destruction of the corporate asset of property of Ilva in Extraordinary Administration ".
The same sources highlight "safety risks" and the fact that there would be a "total blockage of the production of the plant, qualified as' strategic interest, the only one in the national territory with an 'integrated cycle' for the production of steel".
Confindustria asks to "avoid the shutdown of the hot integral cycle of the former Ilva. Interrupting the production and supply of the steel produced in Taranto puts the entire Italian manufacturing chains that need it in serious difficulty".
Furthermore, the confederation continues, there would be "a certain and significant worsening of the national trade balance, since it would be necessary to import steel from abroad".
And again: "the immediate closure would nullify all the efforts made to limit the number of redundancies, putting thousands of workers and families at serious risk" and it would also be "traumatic and definitive thwarting the investment process undertaken for environmental sustainability of production ".
The president of Federacciai Alessandro Banzato expresses "strong concern" and hopes "that a suspension of this sentence will be adopted and that the newly appointed government will do all it can to avoid the shutdown of the largest Italian steel plant".
The 60-day term granted by the administrative judge to comply with the trade union order expires on April 14, but the company - which has also announced an appeal to the Council of State - is still called upon to prepare the technical procedures by that date for a possible confirmation at the stop of the plants.
The national secretary Fim Cisl Roberto Benaglia declared in a radio interview that "the company has already informally communicated over the weekend the start of the safety measures of some production activities".
Even the Public Prosecutor of Taranto, according to what is learned, is following the evolution of the affair after having acquired the sentence of the TAR which defined the danger for the population linked to the emissions of the iron and steel industry "permanent and immanent".
The administrative judge's decision states that the plant, which now sees the State, through Invitalia, support ArcelorMittal in its management, still pollutes.
And it is pointed out that not even the respect of the Hague entails "in itself a guarantee of the exclusion of risk or health damage".
According to the metalworking unions, which have already announced a request to meet the Minister for Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani, closing the hot area in Taranto would also mean closing the sites in Genoa and Novi Ligure, with the risk of "losing 20 thousand jobs in work".
