Workers in Italy's troubled automotive sector are holding a national strike for the first time in 20 years.
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00:00Tens of thousands of automotive sector workers marched through the streets of Rome on Friday.
00:08They came from across Italy and abroad to join one of the largest strikes in recent
00:13years.
00:14Taking part in the protests were not only the sector's main unions, but also employees
00:17of Italy's sole major automaker, Stellantis.
00:21They expressed their concerns about the sector's decline.
00:24We have a situation that is precipitating, the volumes are collapsing, we will not even
00:29make 500,000 vehicles in our country, which has not happened since 1956, there is a situation
00:36of occupational loss of over 12,000 workers in three years, there is the integration box
00:41that is made more integration box than work, it becomes fundamental that the presidency
00:48In the last 17 years, Stellantis has experienced a 70% drop in production.
01:07Workers feared that the company's future plans could result in further job cuts, and they
01:12denounced plans for relocation to low-cost countries.
01:34The call to address the crisis is global, affecting the whole European automotive industry,
01:40competitiveness and the green transition have taken a strain on the whole sector, that's
01:44why union representatives from several EU countries and beyond have gathered here to
01:49take to the streets and join the protest.
02:07It would be a shame on Europe if we lost that industrial expertise, the skilled jobs,
02:14all of the innovation which comes from the Italian automotive industry, so the fight
02:19in Italy is our fight, and that's why we are demanding very strongly for a European plan,
02:26industrial plan, investment plan to deal with the crisis in the industry.
02:31Giorgia Orlandi for Euronews, in Rome.