Italian autos pay talks to run into January – union

MILAN (Reuters) – Discussions over new job contracts in Italy for Stellantis, Ferrari (NYSE:), CNH Industrial (NYSE:) and Iveco workers will be extended into January, a union representative said on Monday.

The UILM, FIM-CISL, Fismic, UGLM and AQCF metalworkers’ unions in October started talks to renew four-year contracts expiring at the end of 2022 for most Italian workers at the four groups, all descended from the former Fiat.

Among other things, unions are proposing a 8.4% annual wage rise for next year, to help workers recover purchasing power lost due to a Europe-wide spike in inflation.

Italian consumer price inflation hit an annual 12.5% in November.

The last of a series of scheduled meetings between the companies and the unions are being held on Monday and Tuesday.

Gianluca Ficco of the UILM union told Reuters talks would “predictably” continue next month.

“On Monday and on Tuesday we will continue negotiations on regulatory issues, including safety. After that we will deal with issues including proposed salary increases,” Ficco said.

A Stellantis spokesperson said the company had no further comment.

The new contracts would cover almost 70,000 workers in Italy, two thirds of them at the former Fiat-Chrysler, which last year merged with France’s PSA to create Stellantis, whose brands also include Peugeot (OTC:), Jeep and Opel.

Leftist FIOM, one of Italy’s largest metalworkers’ organisations, has not joined talks with other unions and is holding separate contract discussions.

Later on Monday, it said the four groups had responded negatively to its proposals, which include a one-off bonus for workers worth one month’s salary.

FIOM will call for a series of actions, including some hours of strikes to be arranged plant by plant, its automotive industry head Simone Marinelli said in a statement.

Stellantis was not immediately reachable for a comment on this.

The group is also involved in salary talks for its workers in France, offering a 5.3% pay rise compared with requests from local unions for increases of 7.3% to 8.5%.