MILAN — Fiat aims to restart operations at three Italian sites as soon as the government lifts coronavirus restrictions on manufacturing, a union representative said.
Unions will monitor health precautions, said Gianluca Ficco, a representative of the UILM metal workers’ union.
Despite Italy’s lowest death toll from coronavirus in six days on Wednesday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said a national lockdown in place since March 9, and due to expire on Friday, would be extended until at least April 13. The lockdown measures include a freeze on all non-essential economic activity, including car production.
Ficco said unions had started talks with the automaker to make sure all health and security requirements were met in factories, with a view to resuming operations after the lockdown.
“At the moment the date we are looking at is April 14,” he said.
The sites are the Melfi operation in southern Italy that produces Jeep’s Compass and new hybrid models; the Atessa plant making light commercial vehicles in central Italy; and the Mirafiori plant in Turin that includes preparatory operations for the new electric 500, Ficco said.
An Fiat spokesman confirmed on Thursday that, if the government allowed production to restart after April 13, those three operations would be the group’s priority.
Last week, before the national lockdown was extended, the automaker had told unions it would have been ready to resume the same three operations on April 6 if the government had given its go-ahead.