Ex Ilva: workers spend the night in the square Genoa. The mayor: ‘A sacrosanct struggle’

Genoa, 20 November. (LaPresse) – First night in the square for the workers of the former Ilva in Genoa, on strike to demand the withdrawal of the plan that provides for the cessation of coil shipments to Genoa from Taranto and effectively stops tinplate processing at the production site, which saw the closure of the hot area in 2005, with the conversion of production 20 years ago. The workers slept on the street, on the picket line on Via Cornigliano, where yesterday, after a day of striking and occupying the factory, late in the evening they were visited by the Mayor of Genoa, Silvia Salis, who in the morning had written to the Minister for Enterprise, Urso, to request the convening of an urgent meeting on the Genoa dispute. “I am here to bring you not only my solidarity, but also my commitment,” Salis told the workers. ‘You know how, from the very beginning, I have been in favour of the electric furnace and how difficult a decision it was politically. But there was no industrial plan or real investment from the government, and my eventual ‘no’ would have become an excuse not to invest in Genoa. We did not lend ourselves to this game. And now what is the future of these areas? The government must tell us.‘ ’We demand clear words, a clear programme: we must defend the economic development of this city and your skilled jobs,‘ she continued. ’We will do this: we will ask the minister to tell us what their intentions are. We were asked for a quick and immediate response on the “yes” to the electric furnace: we gave it, and the result is that there is no investment of any kind’. “I am on your side, your fight is sacrosanct,” concluded Salis, “there are 1,200 families living on the future of this area. I am with you, I am here as I have always been when it was time to take a stand”.