Thousands of people marched through Naples Thursday in protest over an industrial dispute that encapsulates the woes of the poverty-hit south, scarred by empty factories, high unemployment and the mafia. Workers downed tools over the threatened closure by US white goods maker Whirlpool of a production site in the capital of the Campania region, and potential loss of over 1,000 jobs.
Whirlpool Wednesday announced a last-minute reprieve for the factory, which had been due to shut at the end of this month, but there was no guarantee a fresh round of negotiations with the government would save it. "We're the victims of an endless deindustrialisation. Companies shut, the young leave," trade unionist Andrea Amendola told AFP, as fellow protesters held up an effigy of a Whirlpool worker nailed to the cross like Jesus.
The company insists the site which makes high-end washing machines is no longer profitable and wants to sell - despite having signed a 2019-2021 plan in which it pledged to invest some 250 million euros ($278 million) in its Italy factories.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019
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