Stellantis placed around 2,400 Fiat workers in its main Turin factory on furlough with reduced pay in September last year as it reduced manufacturing of its Fiat 500 city electric car and two Maserati sports cars.

In February the automaker said employees at the Mirafiori plant would work reduced hours, in a single-shift operation instead of a double-shift. 

Workers on furlough earn around €1,100 per month after tax, compared with €1,600 when they were in full employment. A representative for Fiat’s FIM Cisl union says the shortfall is starting to affect the finances of the manufacturer’s older-skewing workforce.

“We have been through ugly periods,” FIM Cisl rep Davide Manago told Reuters.

Furlough pay is often “not enough to pay the mortgage, and going to the bank to ask for loans to put food on the table was not easy,” Manago said. “My fear is going back to that.”

The Mirafiori plant is one of the oldest in Europe, but it has fallen in significance as popular cars are built elsewhere in Italy. Its employees, on average, are between the ages of 57 and 58, the union noted, and younger workers aren’t coming in to take their place. 

In June, Fiat CEO and Stellantis global CMO Olivier François visited the Mirafiori plant in a bid to reassure workers about their future at the company. The new Fiat 500 Ibrida is set to be built at the factory in 2025 and 2026. 

In February, Stellantis discussed the potential for Chinese Leapmotor cars destined for Europe to be made at its Mirafiori plant as a way for its Chinese partner to avoid hefty import tariffs set to be implemented by the European Commission.  

Stellantis bought a 21% stake in Leapmotor in October last year, making it one of several European carmakers to form alliances with Chinese suppliers over fears they could be wiped out by their competitors’ low prices.

The plight of Fiat workers in Turin serves as a warning for the rest of the European car market, which employs nearly 14 million people.

German giant Volkswagen is pushing to weaken the resolve of its powerful works council as it seeks €10 billion in cost savings. The carmaker ended its 30-year labor agreement to secure jobs, and floated the idea of closing a German factory for the first time in its history.

Stellantis’s Italian battle

Stellantis, which was formed in 2021 through a merger between Italian-American Fiat Chrysler and France’s Peugeot-Citroën, has butted heads with the Italian government in the past year amid debates over the origin of its cars.

In April, Stellantis subsidiary Alfa Romeo was forced to rename its Milano model to Junior after the government took issue with an Italian-sounding name for a car built in Poland.  

The next month, Italy’s financial police seized dozens of Fiat Topolinos for again allegedly violating the country’s “Made in Italy” laws.

In October, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said outgoing CEO Carlos Tavares “should be ashamed and apologize” for “mismanaging an historic Italian company.”

Salvini said he was launching “Operation Truth” against Stellantis, demanding to know “how much public money the group has collected over the years, how many Italian workers have been laid off or suspended, and how many factories have been opened abroad.”

Stellantis has sought to reassure an increasingly hostile Italian government that it is committed to building in the country.

“The new 500 Ibrida has an Italian name, will be developed and designed in Turin, and proudly made in Mirafiori. It is clear that Mirafiori plays a strategic role for the brand and that we are also continuing investing in Italy, the 500, and Mirafiori,” said Fiat CEO François in May, likely as part of a charm offensive following the Italian government’s previous quibbles.