MILAN (Reuters) – Stellantis has asked to temporarily activate a furlough scheme at its Melfi plant in Italy to respond to production hiccups amid a global chip shortage and a protest by truck drivers, a union representative said on Friday.
The carmaker has told unions it was requesting the furlough scheme to run for two weeks until March 13, Marco Lomio, the UILM union’s representative for the Basilicata region where Melfi is based, told Reuters.
However, a decision on the extent of the measures and how much production could be lost depends on how the chip situation and the truck drivers strike to protest against rising fuel prices evolved, he added.
At Melfi, one of the group’s largest assembly facilities in Italy, Stellantis produces the Renegade and Compass Jeep models and the Fiat 500X compact SUV.
Stellantis declined to comment.
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina, editing by Maria Pia Quaglia and Keith Weir)
