The workers: "It's only right that they see the reality of this plant with their own eyes" Mobilization of the Rome office with the network of pharmaceutical informants on Friday
PAVIA. There were more than two hundred workers in the assembly yesterday in the meeting room of the former Vigorelli, in that wing of the Merck Sharp and Dohme in via Emilia which has already been abandoned for years: workers, technicians, but also officials, employees and managers. In the end, the united assembly decided that during the eight-hour strike proclaimed for Friday, a garrison would be set up in front of the factory gates starting at 8 and then move to the centre, in front of the Prefecture, to involve the city and ask the Prefect Giuseppa Strano Materia a formal commitment to carry forward the requests of the workers,
«Friday will be an important day – explains Gianni Ardemagni, secretary of the Femca Cisl – because we will ask the prefect to support our requests for the territory and employment and we are confident that Dr. Strano Materia can bring to the Government the need to intervene on all levels with Merck Sharp and Dohme so that the management reconsider the decision to close the plant at the end of 2014». "The workers are satisfied with the compactness with which the territory has reacted to the news of the closure of the plant - says Pietro Cavallaro of Uiltec - We are convinced that silence should not be dropped on the matter: what we and the workers cannot accept is that for the managing director Pierluigi Antonelli this Pavia plant is an excellent plant in terms of flexibility, productivity, product quality and yet the decision is irrevocable. Nor can we accept the closure of the last production plant of the multinational in Italy and the totally commercial drift of pharmaceuticals in the area».
Friday will therefore be a strike, the eight-hour stoppage will involve the production plant in Pavia, where 270 work, and the Rome office: «We hope that membership will be massive - explains Giorgio Mercuri, secretary of Filctem CGIL - and that with the participation of the network of pharmaceutical informants all Merck's activities in Italy should stop".
During the meeting, the trade unionists retraced the steps in the dispute: the announcement of the closure of the plant on 6 June, the arrival at the Merck headquarters in via Emilia of the personnel manager Giovanni Parisi for a meeting with local managers to explain the reasons for the closure, the city council open, the meeting in the Region, the table with the company at the Ministry for Economic Development, the wait for the American leaders convened by the ministry by the end
