Stellantis has signed a voluntary deal with unions to cut up to about 1,500 jobs in the Italian city of Turin, the automaker and unions said today.
Turin, in Italy’s north-west, is the historic home of Fiat, which merged first with Chrysler and later with Peugeot-maker PSA to create Stellantis.
Up to 1,520 employees, including 300 at the Mirafiori car plant and 733 office staff, will have the opportunity to leave with financial incentives, the UILM trade union said.
Stellantis employs about 43,000 people in Italy, including about 15,000 in the Turin area, a spokesperson for the automaker said.
Output at Mirafiori has been cut recently, and workers put on reduced-hours contracts, due to weak demand for the fully-electric Fiat 500 and a transition to new luxury Maserati models being produced there.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares told Italian media last week that Turin remained a key hub for the company, but said national auto purchase incentives were needed to boost consumer demand.
The head of UILM in Turin, Luigi Paone, today called for an acceleration in ongoing talks with Stellantis and public institutions “to create a real relaunch project for Mirafiori”.
Italy’s government is in talks with Stellantis over boosting the automaker’s annual output in the country to one million vehicles, from about 750,000 last year.
Stellantis has trimmed jobs in other major centres. It said last week it would lay off about 400 US workers as it seeks to cut costs, boost efficiency and ramp up electric-vehicle production plans.
