Ferrari,
which was hit by a staff walkout on Tuesday at its
Maranello factory, isn't proving immune to the global
slowdown amongst carmakers, media sources report that is
is seeking to stall production and trim 9 percent of its
workforce.One
of the biggest negatives as it emerges from the
recession, according to the reports, is a dramatic
reduction in demand for the 4.2/4.7 litre V8 engine that
Ferrari builds for Fiat Group sister Maserati, with
demand halving from 9,000 to 4,500 units last year as
the Trident brand was one of the bigger casualties in
terms of falling sales of the global financial crisis
and resulting recession.
The reports of
unrest and job cuts at Maranello comes from news agency
Bloomberg. Ferrari staff walked out for four hours on
Tuesday, according to CGIL union official Giordano Fiorani,
because Prancing Horse management wants to axe 120 office
positions and 150 factory jobs in exchange for distributing
the last payment of a 2009 bonus that was due last month.
"Ferrari has proposed to pay the bonuses if we accept the
job cuts," Fiorani told Bloomberg. "We are ready to
discuss layoffs and reorganization, as there is a real cut
in production, but we don’t understand their rigidity."
From next
Monday Ferrari (May 17) will lay-off 600 workers for a
week. The news was confirmed to Bloomberg by a
Ferrari spokesman, Stefano Lai, who added that the
company would be seeking to outsource some of its work
to local companies and would offer other staff early
retirement opportunitiues. In a statement, Ferrari said
it is reorganising to focus on on areas such as product
development, technological innovation and new markets
and customers and was outsourcing "non core" operations.
"Ferrari has to respond to market demands that rise and
fall in an ever less-predictable fashion," the statement
read. However yesterday's Wall Street Journal
quoted Ferrari spokesman Matteo Sardi as saying that
"the story was incorrect and the company is working on
clarifying the facts."
