Now, encouraged by a wave of support from civil society — as well as the realization that promises to restart the factory were going nowhere — the cooperative born out of this struggle is taking matters into its own hands, outlining a plan for sustainable bottom-up reindustrialization.
And yet, as of now, these former GKN workers have found little political support for their industrial plan.
The result of close collaboration between researchers, workers and professionals, this plan would see the former auto-part plant shift to the production, installation, recovery and recycling of solar panels, as well as the manufacturing of cargo-bikes — an innovative, sustainable solution that could save jobs, cater to growing private and public sector demands, all while perfectly aligning with the EU’s Green Deal Industrial Plan (GDIP).
Aimed at reshoring manufacturing capacity in energy-intensive and strategic sectors, the GDIP will inevitably require balancing economic competitiveness with sustainable practices, a massive reallocation of both capital and workers, as well as investment in green technologies and the skills required to produce them. As European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, the EU’s industrial plan is designed to “turn skills into quality jobs and innovation into mass production.”
So, as the cooperative’s negotiations with local and national government are protracted indefinitely — a strategy the former GKN workers believe is aimed at breaking their resolve — it’s hard to understand what could justify such inaction.
According to Leonard Mazzone, a researcher from the University of Florence and member of the solidarity group that prepared the plan, everything is ready to go: They’ve found and reserved the machinery needed to begin production, constructed the first prototypes for the cargo-bikes, and 62 percent of the solar panels the factory aims to produce in its first year have already been ordered.
