UAW Gold? Fiat Pulls Out Of Italian Business Group Due To Union Labor Contracts

Italy's largest manufacturer Fiat SpA is to quit the country's leading business group, Confindustria, as it believes the group's collective labour contracts put it at a disadvantage on the international stage.

The move comes after a groundbreaking deal to boost productivity and cut absenteeism struck by the carmaker last year was subjected to legal challenges by a trade union and after national legislation introducing greater labour flexibility met resistance.

"Fiat, which is engaged in the creation of a major international group ... cannot afford to operate in Italy in an environment of uncertainty that is so incongruous with the conditions that exist elsewhere in the industrialised world," CEO Sergio Marchionne said in a letter to Confindustria published on Monday.

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Agent009 - 10/4/2011 2:25:53 PM

+1 Boost

Sets the stage for more production to move to US. UAW can get ready for an expansion.

1c3am5 - 10/4/2011 3:03:06 PM

+2 Boost

What's funny/sad is that the dum-dums on the interwebs forums and AM-talk shows have no idea how much power is in the hands of foreign unions, and workers in socialist nations like Japan.

So they yammer on about how these jobs are only worth $x per hour and feed the fire of a race-to-the-bottom for wages. Except the Chinese will still do it cheaper.

Anyone who wants to break down foreign trade barriers is a protectionist in their minds because their talk-radio puppet masters told them so. We traded away our consumer electronics industry 40 years ago to keep bases in Japan, and guess what? Vietnam is just another communist nation that sends us cheap furniture for our rented homes.