by Maximiliano Crocamo
Italy’s industry minister and Friuli Venezia Giulia’s president called for a public procedure to find a new industrial operator as 320 workers face an approaching deadline for income support.
Italy’s industry minister, Adolfo Urso, and Friuli Venezia Giulia’s president, Massimiliano Fedriga, on Saturday urged the ownership of StarTech Trieste to move toward extraordinary administration, a procedure intended to identify a new industrial operator and preserve the plant’s production capacity.
The appeal followed an hourlong meeting at the Prefecture in Piazza Unità d’Italia, attended by labor unions representing the workforce, regional officials and Prefect Giuseppe Petronzi. More than 100 workers gathered outside the building as pressure mounted for a resolution to the company’s uncertain future.
Urso described the meeting as a show of unity among national and regional institutions, employers’ representatives and unions. Extraordinary administration, he said, was the only route capable of safeguarding the factory and its workforce while allowing a public process to identify an industrial partner to revive the plant, which he described as strategically important to its sector.
Fedriga said the company’s ownership had taken only some of the steps needed to advance the process. The approval of the company’s financial statements on Friday was an important development, he said, but further action remained necessary.
He also referred to a letter expressing a willingness to proceed with changes involving the company’s ownership and properties, following the earlier transfer of its controlling company to Milan. But the commitment had yet to translate into concrete action, he said.
The dispute has become a broader concern for Italian industry, said Debora Serracchiani, a Democratic Party lawmaker and former president of the region, who spoke to demonstrators outside the Prefecture.
StarTech has skilled workers, a strong industrial facility and access to a market that could support substantial investment, Serracchiani said. She added that she had requested to attend the meeting as the area’s parliamentary representative but had been denied access.
“The important thing today is that solutions be sought and found,” she said.
The urgency is underscored by an approaching deadline for the workforce. A solidarity agreement providing income support for 320 employees expires on Oct. 31. Workers have received no payments from the company since August, while wage support is being paid directly by Italy’s national social security agency, INPS.
Mrdovic Vianello, StarTech’s chief executive, had pledged to submit the documents required to advance the process by Oct. 2, according to the ministry. The company delivered only an incomplete first portion, leaving the next steps unresolved as the deadline for the workers’ existing support arrangement approaches.
