Burst for redundancies for Alitalia

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The tension of the last hours on the rescue of Alitalia revolves around a term indicated by Lufthansa in the letter sent to Fs and Mise to announce the desire to be part of the game: preconditions. Preconditions is synonymous with situations that must occur or no money on the plate. And since the former flag company needs a shareholder and money to complete the rescue team, it is easy to see how the substance of these preconditions is the balance of the future of an important piece of Italian industry . Among these preconditions is the hypothesis of 2,500-3,000 redundancies. The government is vigilant but obviously worried, the unions are already on a war footing.

What the German airline has formalized is the willingness to "an important investment" in the new Alitalia, with a greater commitment than what has emerged to date from other market partners. The reference is to the American Delta, which does not seem willing to increase its weight in the shareholding of the future newco and therefore to put more money than the 100 million already announced. If the rescue consortium fails to gain altitude it is also for this reason: the various pieces (besides Delta, there are Fs, the Treasury and Atlantia) do not fit together in terms of resources and strategy. The Benetton company continues to insist on the need for a partner in the heavy sector and also the Railways want the operation to have an industrial character worthy of the name.

In the letter, Lufthansa does not indicate a figure, but sources close to the dossier reveal that we are talking about 150-200 million. Money, however, as was said, is linked to the preconditions, that is to say the redundancies but also to the revision of the fleets. The risk that emerges is that the price to pay for the rescue of Alitalia is very high: to keep the company alive in the face of tears and blood at work. At the sole hypothesis the unions make wall. "We reject any hypothesis of redundancies and layoffs, for us it is absurd to discuss layoffs when we have not seen any industrial plan", the national secretary of Fit CGIL Fabrizio Cuscito blurts out. And also the Fit-Cisl, through the number one Salvatore Pellecchia, launches the alarm: "Compared to the news appeared in some newspapers according to which the plan on which it is working would foresee 2,800 redundancies, trasecolo".

The unions bring the government into play. Cuscito says it clearly: "He has the responsibility of negotiation, he has the duty to choose the most suitable industrial partner in terms of perspective and employment protection". The Fit-Cisl calls into question the Mise, the dossier, and underlines the fact that the government has always given reassurances that there would be no redundancies.

Instead, the redundancies have become the crucial element of a negotiation that is already underway. The Fs carries it, the pivot of the buyer consortium. In the coming days, a series of meetings will be held in Frankfurt with the Lufthansa management to understand if and how the scope of the preconditions can be mitigated. But the government is also involved in this game, all the more reason that the idea carried out so far is that of a consortium that has the stretch of public control given the significant presence of Fs and Tesoro. Lufthansa's offer changes the cards on this front too, because if the Germans are ready to put 200 million on the billion needed to launch the offer, it is clear that they also want to count in terms of governance.

For now the government does not take an official position. Executive sources explain that they are trying to understand first the exact contours of the operation carried out by Lufthansa. "There is still no precise indication of the money," reveals a source. But this does not change the situation, indeed it confirms it, because that money is tied to the preconditions. And those preconditions cannot be politically supported. But on the other hand there is the same survival as Alitalia. More days go by and the cash on hand decreases. Another loan arrived with the maneuver. And then there is the weight of the past, which updates the account of public money spent to support the airline: 10 billion from the time of the brave captains until the last attempt to rescue the state. The tension is all here.