The Permanent Restructuring of Italy's FCAStellantis Factories: An Anatomy of Labour and Unions Downfall

This paper explores the process of permanent restructuring that unfolded within FCA-Stellantis factories in Italy over the last decade. Through in-depth interviews with shop stewards and trade unionists, it shows that such a process rested on two pillars: the transformation of industrial relations and work organisation; and the restructuring of production, through the decline in volumes the structural use of social shock absorber schemes. Acting through these levers, management systematically and successfully fostered a strategy of workforce and union division, thus eroding social relations among workers and minimising the emergence of industrial conflict. Finally, the paper shows that the creation of the Stellantis group following the merger between FCA and PSA represents the apex of the process of restructuring initiated with FCA, bringing about a further deterioration of working conditions on the shopfloor.