7 December, 2007Two workers died and another eight were hospitalised after a fire broke out.
ITALY At 01:30 am on Thursday December 6 at a steel factory in Turin owned by the transnational steel giant ThyssenKrupp a fire started in the shop where the full-hot metal is cooled. According to witnesses the incident looked like a scene from hell, with people enveloped in flames becoming fire torches in seconds. Colleagues of the victims who tried to help had to helplessly observe the nightmare, as four out of five fire extinguishers failed to function.
The company was gradually dissolving the factory, with the enterprise due to close in two months time. Out of 400 people initially working at the factory the company relocated around 200 workers, the remaining 200 people were supposed to get compensation from a redundancy fund for two years and later to switch to a mobile employment scheme.
According to the opinion of Fabbio Carletti, FIOM representative, expressed in the Italian newspaper La Stampa the company is no longer interested in the plant and recently stopped paying attention to the enterprise, workers and their conditions.
Outraged with such lack of responsibility on the part of the company the IMF affiliates in Italy FIM-CISL, FIOM-CGIL and UILM-UIL made a joint statement:
"We demand full and regular participation of the authorities in controlling workplace health and safety, the enterprises should adopt all the norms and necessary measures for controlling workers' health and safety and be fully responsible for their application. One should work to live, not to die."
On Monday December 10 the IMF affiliates in Italy will organize an eight hour strike at all ThyssenKrupp enterprises. In addition, together with the announced strike, the unions have proposed a National Day of Struggle of Metalworkers of Italy on December 14 to get controlled health and safety conditions at all workplaces.
IMF expresses its condolences to the families of those that died and to the other workers who have suffered as a result of the tragedy in Turin and expresses its full solidarity with the metalworkers in Italy.
Update:
According to the last report received from Italy a total of seven workers died as a result of the incident.