Leonardo and the Saudis, Cingolani does not allay the unions' fears

Along the A16, the highway that connects Campania to Puglia, delegations from the Saudi government and Leonardo's management have alternated over the past two days. The artery also connects the four aerostructures divisions of the former Finmeccanica: Pomigliano d'Arco, Nola, Foggia and Grottaglie for a total of 5,000 workers excluding related industries.

THE INTEREST of the Gulf monarchy in the division, and its entry as a "partner", would be the result of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed last January between the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia, the General Authority for the Military Industry and the former Finmeccanica. A relationship, that between the Italian state-owned company (the Ministry of Economy holds 30%) and the Saudi government, which precedes the institutional trip of Prime Minister Meloni to Riyadh. The latest MoU, "born with the aim of developing and evaluating a series of investments and opportunities to expand collaboration in the aerospace and defense sectors", followed the previous one, signed at the beginning of 2024, which established cooperation in the sectors of "space, aerostructures, localization for electronic warfare systems, radar and assembly of helicopters, air combat and multi-domain integration".

THE UNIONS , although cautious about the possible entry of Saudi Arabia, and strong in the reassurances of CEO Roberto Cingolani, fear that behind the company's search for international partnerships there could be the hypothesis of a spin-off or partial sale of perimeters within the division. The last of the plants visited by the delegation, the former Alenia in Grottaglie, would weigh on the entire former Finmeccanica supply chain due to the single client from the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing. According to Stefano Pontecorvo, chairman of the board of directors of Leonardo, the division in the province of Taranto would be in the red by 300 million a year.

The Boeing 787 assembly problems originated, with a long judicial process, in 2021. When, after an investigation, which had led to the seizure of company assets, two companies in the Brindisi aerospace sector – Processi Speciali srl and Manufacturing process specification srl, both suppliers of Leonardo -, ended up once again at the center of the news.

The Brindisi prosecutor's office claims that the metal components produced by these companies, intended for the construction of the fuselages of the Boeing 787s assembled at the Grottaglie site, were made with titanium and aluminum alloys that were different from those expected, "generating significant savings on the purchase of raw materials, and the production of aerial parts with static and stress resistance characteristics far below the standards, with repercussions on the safety of air transport."

The same companies from Brindisi, according to the investigators, were also responsible for the spillage of harmful substances deriving from the chemical processes of metal working on the surface of some lands in the Brindisi area.

SINCE THEN, the Grottaglie site, as well as the entire aerostructures division, has been hit by a succession of "flexibility solutions", recourse to redundancy payments, and doubts about the future. Five thousand workers are paying for the choice of suppliers used by management, which declared itself an injured party and unaware of the facts. The next update on the status of the negotiations is expected on March 11, when the updated plan will be presented and the Strategic Observatory with the unions will take place.