TRIESTE – Another meeting was held in recent days to seek a solution to the stop of engine production at the Wartsila plant in Trieste.
At the headquarters of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, the CEO of Wartsila Italia, Michele Cafagna, basically confirmed the industrial project already presented to the Ministry of Enterprise, with some changes.
During the meeting, Wartsila management informed the parties about its willingness to maintain future activity at the Bagnoli della Rosandra plant, and to quantify the warehouses and parts of the site subject to possible sale as part of the reindustrialization project at between 39 and 45 million euros.
In addition to the 50 million eruo of planned investments in Trieste over the next three years, there is also 1.4 million for test instrumentation for methanol conversion of engines (W46C and ZA40).
Proposals that did not dispel the doubts of the trade unions, which called for the convening of a regional table to address the employment issue of the 300 or so workers working in the ancillary business. The Friuli Venezia Giulia region has pledged to do so.
As of September 1, there were 941 Wartsila employees on the payroll at the Bagnoli della Rosandra plant, of whom 320 are, for the company, potential redundancies to be relocated.
“Concerns still remain about the prospects of Wärtsilä Italia: there is a lack of a plan for the development of a core/industrial activity that could be of strategic importance for the entire Wärtsilä group as was the production of engines taken over in 2001,” the unions write in a note. Strong perplexities also in meirto the fact that “the retrofit activity” could become strategic for Wartsila Italy, considering the limited resources used in the industrialization process of the activity.
Finally, the company “has not yet activated actions for the sustainability of the seaport of Trieste, necessary for the docking of vessels for green engine retrofit operations,” the union note concludes.
