Hope prevails at the “Israeli” presentation of the M346

The ceremony at the Alenia Aermacchi headquarters, in Venegono Superiore, was a spectacular event.

The rollout, the first live presentation of the M346 for Israeli clients, who made an order for more than €850 million with the Venegono-based company, saw not only the most important representatives of the parties involved (Alenia Aermacchi, the Israeli government, the company Tor, and Honeywell) congratulating each other and exchanging gestures of mutual appreciation, but also heartfelt participation by the factory workers, who emphasised how crucial their work is in the making of a product with such a high technological content.

At the end of the ceremony, and of his speech, in English, as all were, General Domenico Esposito turned to the workers present, and said in Italian, “I want to thank the employees of this company. The managers may be tough and good in negotiations, but without their strengths and skills nothing would be achieved.”

These words received a long and heartfelt applause. “We want to thank the General, because, with his words, he expressed the feelings of the people who work here,” said Graziano Resteghini of the trade union FIM CISL, before he spoke about the reasons that led to the two-hour strike that took place just before this presentation. “We delivered a document, in which we express our reservations regarding the policies; the company must start hiring local workers again; this ‘winged Province’ must remain so, what this company does can’t be improvised.”

The people in charge of the trade unions, however, are not forgetting the times, as an important order is ceremoniously sealed that will bring Alenia Aermacchi no less than €450 million. “This is a day of celebration, over an important international success. Hopefully, we will overcome these difficult times,” said Ruggero Conti, of the trade union UILM. “We hope to have concrete confirmation as soon as possible, and a turnover of external workers with local ones. Meanwhile, talks are going on, also in Rome.”

After the difficult times, the situation is now looking up. “The figures are improving a lot, in terms of orders, production and margins,” said Giuseppe Giordo, the CEO of Alenia Aermacchi. “For Venegono, the latest big orders, such as those from Singapore and Israel have been important. It means giving new prospects to the program and launching others.” Giordo then mentioned the 125 new jobs in 2012, and pointed out that another 50 are expected by the end of 2014. “The current situation has created peaks in work that couldn’t be resolved by hiring, but required specialised workers that were ready.” However, the agencies were only able to find these people abroad. “We’re assessing collaboration with local associations, to implement a job training programme for universities and professional schools. But we also need workers now.”

“The recent merger of three different companies has led to some problems, but our strategic choice is to always put the right people in the right place,” Giordo concluded. “There are critical areas in being part of a big group, but also great benefits: the amount of investments alone is twice the turnover of the former Alenia Aermacchi.”