Jobs are a right!
It was an audacious move that has divided public opinion in Italy and brought into focus the country’s low productivity and high labour cost crisis.
Earlier this month, the owner of an electrical components factory in the north of the country waved his employees off on their summer holidays. Then, without informing them, he moved the entire operation, lock, stock and barrel, to Poland.
Fabrizio Pedroni, 49, said he was driven to the drastic course of action because his factory, located near the city of Modena, had not turned a profit for five years and he was being strangled by high salaries, crippling taxes and dismal rates of productivity.
Moving the factory to Eastern Europe was the only way of saving his company, which was founded 50 years ago by his grandfather.
When his 40 employees found out what had happened, they were furious. They were not due to return from holiday until next week but got wind of the covert operation in mid-August and turned up at the Firem factory in the town of Formigine to find the place devoid of machinery.
They blocked the last of around 20 trucks from leaving the plant, but the rest were long gone, en route to the town of Olawa in south-west Poland.
Mr Pedroni says he has received death threats and will not be returning to Italy anytime soon.
“If I had told the unions that I intended to transfer production to Poland, they would have had my property confiscated, just as they tried to block the lorry,” the businessman told Radio 24, an Italian radio station.
“I had to make a choice. Our competitors in Romania and Poland offer much lower prices. I had three options – either close, move the factory, as many other businesses have done, or shoot myself in the head.”
But but but … what about the children??
Prosecutors in Modena announced this week that they had launched an investigation into the closure of the factory.
“Even in a period of serious economic difficulties, the behaviour of the owners of the Firem factory deserves censure, both in the way it was done and in the timing,” the local town council said in a statement, vowing to rally around the abandoned workers.
“Employees are not lemons to be squeezed or machines which you can move around at your pleasure in the name of profit,” said Giancarlo Muzzarelli, a regional politician.
Muzzarelli sounds like a character straight out of Atlas Shrugged …
A novel that is not so much a matter of prescience, but demonstrates that when one drops a brick off the roof of a building it isn’t going to sprout wings and fly, no matter how much airtime it has before hitting the ground.
(Insert the Orson Welles clapping GIF here)
“Firem” factory.
Love it! Fire ’em, let ’em squall to Government for recompense from the social teat, resulting in more costs, which means even more of the dessicated remaining firms will fire ’em!
This, my friends, is always what happens to Dirty Socialists.
I don’t know why anyone would be in business in “the west” in this climate. The governments not only hate you, they think you exist to provide jobs, which is insane.
Well played. I’m going to be laughing about this all day.
Fabrizio Pedroni should respond to regional politician Giancarlo Muzzarelli thusly:
“Businesses are not lemons to be squeezed for taxes or machines which you can force to pay for social and health insurance at your pleasure.”
Hey! You guys are supposed to hold still while we work you over.
Get back here! Get back here right now!
Are you telling me that outsourcing is the result of high domestic priced and regulations?
– The back story here is sort of missed in the obvious interesting event itself, namely that Italy/Scicily has always been the cradle of Unionism. Hell the Mafia was really just another form of Union, albeit they settled disputes with murderous intent as a part of doing business and operating policy. Beyond that, almosy all “union” forms are based in Communism/Socialism dogma. “Workers of the world unite!”
– And it always works out so well.
Time was, the Poles managed a nice twist on trade-union Solidarnosc. But then, they had Kolakowski on their side, not to mention John Paul II and Ronald Reagan.
I believe a piss-poor work ethic among his Italian employees was also a factor.
and charter 77 and Lech Wa??sa
proggtardia news
IRS is targeting the American Legion with new set of guidelines
How does a business survive five years without a profit?!
Makes me wonder how much the government subsidized this guy, or how much of “his” stuff he moved on the sly was really the banks.
Makes me wonder how much the government subsidized this guy,
i know what you mean his skirt was too short. gang rape away!!11!!
Makes me wonder how much the government subsidized this guy
so he pulls the plug on the parasites and “you attack him?
Attack him? I’m just asking questions. geez, you’re as sensitive as a high school girl.
I’m not a businessman, tell me how a company survives 5 years with no profit.
[…] From The London Daily Telegraph, Nick Squires reporting, we learn [tip of the fedora to Darleen Click]: […]
A company that broke even for 5 years did not make a profit during those years.
Lee
The business is 50 y/o. If it has been successful for the majority of that time, there will have been some holdings against the lean years.
cranky @ 8:07
I agree. It’s why China is doing so well.
Or was doing so well.
Not lemons to be squeezed. The plagiarism is troublesome.
“You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away – a man is not a piece of fruit.”
– Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman, Act 2
“Muzzarelli sounds like a character straight out of Atlas Shrugged”
I remember the criticisms of Atlas Shrugged being so unrealistic. There was just no way that stuff could happen.
Good times.
europe is weird and disheartening
but it’s not so different from here anymore
[…] This will happen in the US too […]
I think it may be a mistake to conflate Italy with the US when it comes to businesses. 50 years ago they were barely moving from full on fascism to full on socialism, and businessmen were and are more like crony capitalists than entrepreneurs, and just as eager for government partnership as a carbon credits dealer.
I admit to being a suspicious type, and something about sneaking away in a sneaky way perks up my ears.
50 years ago they were barely moving from full on fascism to full on socialism,and businessmen were and are more like crony capitalists than entrepreneurs, and just as eager for government partnership as a carbon credits dealer.
necchi you!
I just finished a book that has nothing to do with this, but was none the less a very interesting story of a Italian from about 1900 til 1960. Called A Soldier of the Great War, by Mark Helprin. I never read a book from that perspective before, and highly recommend it.
I didn’t even realize Italy was on Britain’s side in WWI…
necchi
How’s the sewing coming along, nr? Ready to open a site?
working on pair 6. yes to sell the stuff to make jeans.
That’s great! Are you using those old machines? Are they industrial?
no industrial. ’50’s/’60’s domestic machines are really good at punching denim. necchi and white are the main machines with a singer to do bobbins.
the white is my overcasting machine
I’m still in fear of my serger. It mocks me.
this work has given me much appreciation to the quality of mass produced jeans
what do you do with a serger?
next up: renting a mini back hoe from home depot to replace my water line.
Regular sewing. It does a finished edge on seams so there isn’t as much pressing. It’s really good for clothes that take a lot of wear (like kid’s clothes and work pants) since it is like a French seam without sewing it twice. It overcasts the edge.
They’re not really expensive anymore. You should get one.
That sucks. We had a broken line to our septic tank a few years ago.
I did not help fix it.
it is the line from the street to the house. it is not broken but @ 1/2″ and age doesn’t deliver volume. the press. is @ 90 psi but turn on a faucet drops to 10 psi. too much gunk.
i like my set up now with each machine set up to do a different function. and all the machines readily accept the electronic/thyristor foot control. at one time i was a production engineer.
now to find some
illegal, undocumented, document challenge, future citizens..wetbacks and this sweat shop is good to go.Now you’re talking. Tell them that wages make wage slaves, that’s why you have to deduct so many expenses and get back to work, quien sabe?
well another project is to find someone to run against orangeman in OH 8. that’s the ruling class battle field. it would be fun to defeat the crybaby and still control the house.
Dreamer by Roger Hodgson – Voice of Supertramp
“A Time for Choosing” by Ronald Reagan
“I didn’t even realize Italy was on Britain’s side in WWI…”
Well, more like “not on Austria-Hungary’s side”.
Rommel got his Blue Max as a young officer during the some of these battles. In fact his book “Infantry Attacks” covers his fighting in Romainia and the Italian front.
“fronts.” Those were two different places.