Fiom: “From August, Husqvarna will block production”

Bad news came from the meeting between the company and the syndicate at the Husqvarna. In February the motorcycle factory, with 250 employees based at Casinetta di Biandronno has been sold by Bmw to Ktm. The company has communicated their intention to request the redundancy fund as from August due to the partial shutdown of the activity. According to the Fiom sources, the new owners have basically confirmed that the international market is going bad. As from the first of August, production will be blocked, while the sales department will remain active and will have to clear up the 3,500 pieces, which are reckoned to be constructed.         

“What we know for sure is that the plant will be closed”, explains Nino Cartosio, from the FIOM of Varese, “when we asked if they were planning on reopening the plant, they answered, ‘we don’t know, we’re thinking about it’. Actually KTM has taken over for a month, and we couldn’t expect that they already had an industrial plan ready, but it’s no good news, because when a firm needs redundancy funds for the partial suspension of its business activities, it’s a pretty clear message.”

The workers came to hear of KTM’s takeover on 31 January. Moreover, the Austrian company KTM had announced that they would move their business to India, where their main minority shareholder is located, and trade unions immediately feared layoffs. The current plant had been opened by BMW in grand style in 2009.