Fiat Threatens to Quit Italy

Caterina Gurzi, an assembly line worker at a Fiat assembly plant in Turin, Italy, has seen her share of crises over the past 32 years. Yet the current economic slump tops them all, says the 55-year-old, one of 12,000 workers who took part in a one-day strike on Oct. 21 to protest Fiat’s attempts to extract concessions from its unions. “We have never seen something like this before,” Gurzi says. “After weakening our rights and worsening our working conditions, Fiat leaves us with an uncertain and precarious future.”

Fiat Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne, who has threatened to cease manufacturing in Italy if he cannot bring down operating costs, exhibited little sympathy for the plight of Gurzi and her fellow demonstrators. “The worst and most offensive part of this whole story is that we are living in a period of tyranny from a minority,” said Marchionne at an Oct. 24 event in Turin.