The pain is bad enough in northern Italy, where unemployment is barely 4%, but it will be felt more elsewhere. The Termini Imerese plant in Sicily is to lay off 1,800 workers. Unions say that cuts among suppliers could double the number of people hit. The local official jobless rate is already 18% . This is posing a nasty problem for the government of Silvio Berlusconi, which polled strongly in Sicily but is not inclined to aid troubled firms.
Fiat s belated willingness to take tough steps to align capacity with demand is down to the group s new boss, Gabriele Galateri, chosen in June to rescue the firm, which is 30% owned by Agnelli family interests. His aim is to restore credibility, arrest the alarming plunge in the company s share price and persuade the banks that he is sorting out the Fiat Auto mess, so as to win their support for a further recapitalisation.
Closely watching this Italian drama are bosses of General Motors, owners of 20% of Fiat Auto. The Italians have an option to sell the remaining shares to GM from January 2004. GM, which has its own problems in Europe, is desperate for Fiat Auto to sort itself out before it can be forced to take over. Although the Agnelli family patriarch, the ailing 81-year-old Gianni Agnelli, is opposed to such a sale, most analysts expect that Italy s proudest manufacturing company will end up in American hands.
1.The workers in Fiats plant were pessimistic because_________.
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