Boehringer, the last division left in Reggello moves to Milan. An almost half-century long history ends
The Boehringer CHC department will leave Reggello by June and will be completely transferred to Milan. It is the last remaining division in Valdarno of the Ingelheim pharmaceutical multinational in recent years. 34 employees still employed: agreement with the unions in the process of definition. The meeting with the company is scheduled for tomorrow. A 40-year history ends.
Date of the news: 25.11.2014 – by Eugenio Bini – valdarnopost
Goodbye Boehringer. The Chc division. the last remaining one is preparing to leave the Valdarno by June 2015. It currently has 34 employees.
The department of non-prescription medicines is the last one left active in Prulli. Until 2011, the German multinational had more than 400 employees. Then the transfer to Milan was initiated, while already in 2009 the Istituto De Angeli, the company's production department – which currently occupies the plant – was sold to the French multinational Fareva.
Thus the IT department – of a company in the Empoli area – and the Chc division of over-the-counter drugs remained of the old Boehringer reality, while four people continue to work for the pharmaceutical multinational through teleworking.
In recent weeks, Boehringer has communicated its intention to also close the Chc department and to transfer personnel to Milan. An operation that will be completed in stages by June 2015.
The union dispute has been opened, as Alessandro Picchioni of Filctem CGIL points out. A new meeting between the company and the unions has been scheduled for tomorrow.
Thus ends a story - the one that links the multinational of Ingelheim on the Rhine to Reggello - more than 40 years long.
«Merck sale, it takes time»
The appeal of workers and institutions, the company opens but the ok from the parent company is needed. Summit in Rome
by Anna Ghezzi – 25 November 2014 – the Pavia Province
PAVIA. While Merck, understood as the American pharmaceutical giant, buys commercial rights to NewLink Genetics Corp's experimental Ebola vaccine for €50 million plus royalties, the 184 workers of the Merck plant in Pavia are still suspended between the closure of the plant with no ifs and buts and the possibility that another buyer will arrive after the failure of the negotiations with Zambon. The negotiation with the Vicenza-based company is closed, no glimmer on the horizon: the confirmation arrived yesterday morning at the meeting convened by the prefect Giuseppa Strano Materia at the request of the trade union organisations. The window until 31 March has been confirmed: the closure of production in via Emilia is delayed by three months. But selling in four months seems impossible, which is why the request for more time has come from the table. A few more months. The answer will come directly to the table requested of the Ministry of Economic Development, but the last word belongs to the US parent company.
There were more than twenty at that table yesterday morning: the mayor Massimo Depaoli and the councilor Davide Ottini, the president of the province Daniele Bosone and the councilor Francesco Brendolise, a representative of the Region (absent however the councilor Mario Melazzini), the president of Confindustria Francesco Caracciolo, the unitary trade union representatives and the confederal trade unions (Renato Losio and Giorgio Mercuri for the CGIL, Gianni Ardemagni for the CISL, Carlo Barbieri and Pietro Cavallaro for the UIL). But there were also Giovanni Parisi, personnel manager, Goffredo Freddi, institutional relations, and Stefano Verona, director of the plant in via Emilia. «Merck highlighted the reasons for the interruption of the negotiations with Zambon – explains Ottini – or rather for differences with respect to what was agreed in the letter of intent at the end of August. Zambon allegedly made other demands that Merck was unwilling to fully satisfy. The negotiation is formally closed, the plant back on the market. We will have a table at the development ministry by mid-December». «I think it is positive that institutions and social partners are pushing Merck to consider alternative industrial and occupational solutions to Zambon – explains Ardemagni, Femca -. To promote this objective, it is necessary for the plant to remain productive for the time necessary to implement it». We will save some time given that all the dossiers are already ready – says Mercuri, Filctem – and that we will start from the agreement reached with Zambon. We appreciated the sensitivity of the institutions united to find a solution: to do so, however, Merck must give more time". "We ask the company to do everything to find a new buyer - underlines Barbieri, Uil - and having more time is essential". "We all hoped that with Zambon a solution would be reached for the Merck case - concludes Caracciolo, Industriali - We will do our part to find new investors, the attractiveness of the entire territory is at stake". And the future of over 500 families, if we also count the related pharmaceutical industries which produced 2.7 billion tablets a year.
