Italian car workers go on strike as pressure mounts on Stellantis

Workers in Italy's troubled automotive sector are holding a national strike for the first time in 20 years.

Transcript

00:00Tens of thousands of automotive sector workers marched through the streets of Rome on Friday.

00:08They came from across Italy and abroad to join one of the largest strikes in recent

00:13years.

00:14Taking part in the protests were not only the sector's main unions, but also employees

00:17of Italy's sole major automaker, Stellantis.

00:21They expressed their concerns about the sector's decline.

00:24We have a situation that is precipitating, the volumes are collapsing, we will not even

00:29make 500,000 vehicles in our country, which has not happened since 1956, there is a situation

00:36of occupational loss of over 12,000 workers in three years, there is the integration box

00:41that is made more integration box than work, it becomes fundamental that the presidency

00:48In the last 17 years, Stellantis has experienced a 70% drop in production.

01:07Workers feared that the company's future plans could result in further job cuts, and they

01:12denounced plans for relocation to low-cost countries.

01:34The call to address the crisis is global, affecting the whole European automotive industry,

01:40competitiveness and the green transition have taken a strain on the whole sector, that's

01:44why union representatives from several EU countries and beyond have gathered here to

01:49take to the streets and join the protest.

02:07It would be a shame on Europe if we lost that industrial expertise, the skilled jobs,

02:14all of the innovation which comes from the Italian automotive industry, so the fight

02:19in Italy is our fight, and that's why we are demanding very strongly for a European plan,

02:26industrial plan, investment plan to deal with the crisis in the industry.

02:31Giorgia Orlandi for Euronews, in Rome.