5 October, 2009
ICEM Italian affiliate FEMCA-CISL has drawn a line in the stand against any break-up of Eni, the oil and gas major that is 30% owned by the Italian government. As investors study a restructuring of the energy company, the union sounded a warning last week that splitting Eni into separate companies would bring more harm than good.
FEMCA-CISL General Secretary Sergio Gigli said both workers and consumers would be negatively affected, and that skills, knowledge, and strategic synergies – long vital in the running of the company – would be destroyed.
Sergio Gigli
The union’s comments came at the same time that a financial conference was being held in Milan to address restructuring the company. At that conference, American asset management company and minority shareholder, Knight Vinke, known for provoking shareholder activism to break apart enterprises, recommended that Eni’s oil and gas units be split apart in separate upstream and downstream businesses.
FEMCA-CISL called such a possible separation a loss of integration that would jeopardize the company as a national model, and as an entity that plays a valuable social role inside Italy. The union also said that any weakening of Eni would erode the company’s ability to provide guaranteed strategic energy source supplies to Italy.
Meanwhile, three Italian unions – FILCEM-CGIL, UILCEM-UIL, and FEMCA-CISL – welcomed the news last week that talks have fallen through between Eni and a UK private equity group, the Klesch Group, over sale of a refinery in Livorno, Tuscany. The discussions caused a nine-day strike by unions at the 1,000-worker refinery in early September. Eni had insisted in preliminary talks with Klesch that job guarantees be given to all workers.