February 9, 2010 • 1:38 pm
By Guy Dinmore in Prato, Italy
Published: February 9 2010
When the Italian police, firefighters and assorted inspectors banged on the factory door, launching their latest raid on illegal Chinese sweatshops in Prato, most of the stunned workers living there in damp, windowless cubicles were still in pyjamas.
Within hours, four more clothing factories in Lazzeretto street had been sealed and ranks of sewing machines confiscated, two illegal immigrants were hauled off and the remaining few dozen workers told to get out.
After years of tolerating and also benefiting from waves of Chinese immigrants who have built the largest concentration of Chinese-run industry in Europe, the people of this ancient Tuscan city have decided enough is enough.
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Filed under: China, Italian economy, Italian news, Italian society , Chinese textile, Financial Times, guy dinmore, Prato
February 2, 2010 • 1:41 pm
By Guy Dinmore in Rome
published on February 2 2010
Jobless Italians yesterday won some relief from the crisis under a new scheme that allows them to suspend mortgage payments for up to a year as unemployment levels continue rising despite a slow return to economic growth.
Assurances by Silvio Berlusconi, centre-right prime minister, that the “worst is behind us” have looked increasingly hollow over the past week with major companies, including Fiat, aluminium producer Alcoa and defence conglomerate Finmeccanica, announcing plans to lay off thousands of workers. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Italian economy, Italian politics, Italian society , Financial Times, guy dinmore
January 30, 2010 • 1:41 pm
By Guy Dinmore in Rome
published on Januray 30 2010
Silvio Berlusconi, centre-right prime minister, on Friday warned Alcoa, the US aluminium producer, that it risked damaging its relations with the Italian government if it went ahead with its decision to shut down two smelters in Italy.
Mr Berlusconi’s public statement reflected the government’s alarm at rising job losses across Italy following lay-offs announced by car-maker Fiat and Finmeccanica, a major defence conglomerate. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Italian economy, Italian politics , Financial Times, guy, guy dinmore
January 29, 2010 • 7:10 pm
by Guy Dinmore in Rome, Vincent Boland in Milan and John Reed in London
Published on FT on Jan 29 2010
With Italian newspapers headlining “total war” and “blackmail”, representatives of Fiat, the unions and Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right government meet in Rome today to tackle the car-maker’s production plans and demands for greater worker flexibility.
The mood ahead of the talks soured as Fiat announced it would lay off some 30,000 workers at its five car plants for two weeks from February 22. This followed confirmation of its intention to close its Termini Imerese plant in Sicily next year.
Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of Fiat and manager of Chrysler with a 20 per cent holding, was quoted yesterday as denying union claims of blackmail by announcing the lay-offs ahead of a government decision on how to extend car purchase incentives that kept Fiat afloat in Italy last year. In Detroit with Chrysler, Mr Marchionne is not expected to fly to Rome. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Italian economy, Italian news, Italian politics , FIAT, Financial Times, guy dinmore, Marchionne
by Guy Dinmore in Rome
Published: January 29 2010
Finmeccanica, Italy’s defence and industrial conglomerate, on Friday said it would lay off 1,500 workers, mostly in its aerospace business, as it trimmed its 2010 profit forecast.
The announcement came as Italy reported that unemployment in December had climbed to its highest levels in more than five years, to a seasonally adjusted 8.5 per cent.
Shares in Rome-based Finmeccanica fell about 3 per cent in early trading to their lowest level in six months, following its statement reducing guidance on Thursday night. Executives told a Friday conference call that 2009 had proved to be “much tougher” and that 2010 would be “more difficult” than expected. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Italian economy , Financial Times, Finmeccanica, guy dinmore
January 27, 2010 • 9:12 am
by Guy Dinmore in Rome
Published: January 26 2010
Japanese sushi lovers may see prized deliveries of fresh bluefin tuna taken off the menu this year following a surprise decision by Italy to support the listing of the giant migratory fish as an endangered species and ban its international trade.
Environmentalists applauded the reversal in Italy’s position which they saw as a big step forward to include bluefin tuna on appendix one of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species when Cites members meet in Doha in March.
Italy was among six European Union countries, including France and Spain, that refused last October to back a resolution sponsored by Monaco to save the bluefin tuna from possible extinction by overfishing.
Inclusion in the convention would prohibit international trade in bluefin tuna but not sales on domestic markets. Japan would be most affected as it imports some 90 per cent of all bluefin tuna caught in the Mediterranean May-June fishing season. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Italian economy, Italian environment, Italian news, Italian politics , bluefin tuna, Financial Times, guy dinmore
January 25, 2010 • 7:16 pm
by Guy Dinmore in Rome
Published: January 25 2010
Franco Frattini, Italy’s foreign minister, on Monday sought to contain the diplomatic fallout from harsh criticism of the US relief effort in Haiti made by Guido Bertolaso, head of Italy’s civil protection agency.
Mr Bertolaso, who is close to Silvio Berlusconi, prime minister, slammed the US response on Sunday night, telling Italian television that the US “confuses military intervention with emergency aid” and had failed to co-ordinate with humanitarian agencies in the quake-devastated country.
“We are missing a leader, a co-ordination capacity that goes beyond military discipline,” said Mr Bertolaso, who arrived in Haiti last Friday.
“It’s a truly powerful show of force, but it’s completely out of touch with reality,” he said of the US military. Speaking generally, he also criticised what he called a “vanity parade” of people trying to demonstrate the importance of their own countries’ relief efforts. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Italian news, Italian politics , Bertolaso, Financial Times, guy dinmore
January 18, 2010 • 1:28 pm
by Guy Dinmore in Rome
Published: January 18 2010
Death knell: workers at Fiat’s Termini Imerese plant in Sicily went out on strike in protest over proposals to shut the factory
Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of Fiat and Chrysler, is hailed as the potential saviour of the failed US carmaker, but at home he faces a rough ride as unions mount protests against plans to close one of Fiat’s five car plants in Italy.
Still, the unions’ recession-induced weakness and a reluctance by Italy’s troubled centre-right government to block one of the country’s most powerful industrialists has led some analysts to believe that Mr Marchionne could get his way. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Italian economy, Italian news, Italian politics , FIAT, Financial Times, guy dinmore, Italian companies
January 17, 2010 • 1:25 pm
by Guy Dinmore in Rome
Published: January 17 2010
Pope Benedict became the second pope in modern times who visited Rome’s synagogue
In his first visit to Rome’s synagogue, Pope Benedict on Sunday asked for forgiveness for Christians who had fuelled anti-Semitism, but the murky history of his war-time predecessor, Pius XII, cast a shadow over a ceremony heavy with hurt and symbolism.
Pope Benedict’s short and heavily guarded journey from the Vatican across the Tiber to the imposing synagogue was only the second made by a pope in modern times, following in the steps of John Paul II in 1986. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Vatican , Financial Times, guy dinmore, Pope
January 13, 2010 • 1:33 pm
by Guy Dinmore in Rome
Published: January 13 2010
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s centre-right prime minister, on Wednesday ruled out tax cuts, just days after he had signalled in an newspaper interview that his government wanted to reduce higher levels of income tax.
Giving the first press conference to set out his agenda since leaving hospital following an assault by a mentally ill man, Mr Berlusconi renewed his criticism of the judiciary, saying its attacks on him were “comparable… if not worse” than the one in Milan that left him with a broken nose a month ago. Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Italian economy, Italian news, Italian politics , Berlusconi, Financial Times, guy dinmore, tax
When the Italian police, firefighters and assorted inspectors banged on the factory door, launching their latest raid on illegal Chinese sweatshops in Prato, most of the stunned workers living there in damp, windowless cubicles were still in pyjamas.