Fiat 500 production halted as Polish workforce walk out (1st April story)
April 1st, 2008Following on from previous difficulties that have dented the production and reputation of the Fiat 500, manufactured at Fiat’s plant in Tychy Poland, yet another spanner has been thrown in the works, which, ironically, was part of a solution to previous strike threats from workers over pay and conditions.
Parent company Fiat has been instigating upgrades and improvements at the Tychy plant, one element of which was designed to instil a sense of pride in the workers’ association with the Italian car manufacturer. At the entrance to the plant, pictures of historical Italian figures and events have been placed, and the menu at the canteens has been upgraded and improved.
This, however, is apparently the source of the current unrest. When the “Itialianization” of the plant lead to traditional favourites such as beetroot soup and steam softened beef tongues were replaced with minestrone soup and spicy meatballs with spaghetti, the workforce saw this as a step too far and have downed tools until a resolution to this catering catastrophe can be negotiated.
Fiat’s spokesman in Poland, Mr Ingannare, has been quoted as saying
Italian cuisine is the finest in the World, and while we accept and value the tradition of our Polish workforce, we will not back down on this matter, even if it regrettably leads to some customers Fiat 500s being delayed by a few weeks. Eventually we are sure the Polish workforce will learn to love our great Italian dishes now on offer, in which we’ve invested a great deal of time and money as part of our ongoing improvement programme at the plant.
Entries
April 1st, 2008 at 9:54 am
Don’t worry the Polish vice Prime Ministerand Minister of Economy Waldemar Pawlak has hinted that the Ford/Fiat tie up, (a project to build the new Ford Ka at the Fiat Tychyplant) could make Fiat eligible for public subsidies of up to 20 million zloty. Being 19.9 million for the Fiat factory to squander, er sorry spend as they wish, and 0.1million for the better grub.
http://www.polishmarket.com.pl/document/:16548?p=%2Flate%2F
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:37 pm
April Fool!
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:13 am
OK then, I was wrong
it’s actually
19.8 million zlotys to be spent on Fiat machinery
and 0.2 million zlotys to be spent on food.
( OK lads, back to work, we can get a lot of pickles for that sort of money.)
There’s also supposed to be 1000 jobs being created by this Ford version of the 500,
and Ford are talking about a 10 to 12 year production-life for the new 500-based Ka.