Brussels, 17/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - Following the decision by the American tyre producer Goodyear to close its Cisterna di Latina (Italy) factory and to make redundant nearly one thousand workers (550 in the factory itself, plus 500 other jobs with small suppliers and small retailers), the General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) Emilio Gabaglio called on Anna Diamantopoulou, European Commissioner responsible for social policy, in a letter addressed to her, to "open an investigation into the collective redundancies and into the European Works Councils."
This request from the General Secretary of the ETUC is supported by the fear that the closure of this factory - in a region where the unemployment rate is already extremely high - could be the first phases in a reorganisation of Goodyear activities in other EU countries, notably in France, Germany, Luxembourg and the united Kingdom. "For European unions, the Goodyear case, as with other recent cases, clearly proves the need for a strengthening of European legislation in the field of information and consultation" as they have often called for.