Four years have passed since the tragic earthquake that struck our region. Among the private homes and businesses that suffered severe damage was undoubtedly the "Ceramica Sant'Agostino" factory, where Nicola Cavicchi and Leonardo Ansaloni lost their lives during their work shift that fateful night.
Four years where, from the day after the earthquake, everyone rolled up their sleeves to continue production within the intact warehouses, where the owners overlooked nothing to return to being one of the most important manufacturing companies in our area, where all the workers worked hard to adapt professionally to the organizational needs dictated by the search for "reduction" as much as possible in the use of redundancy payments in conjunction with all possible production and processing operations.
Four years where shift patterns were constantly changing, where staff traveled between departments and offices on a daily basis, where organizing everything was a biblical undertaking, where cash transfers, paid directly by INPS, were often late, causing hardship for employees' families, where requests for reconstruction funding had to be processed through a "typically" Italian bureaucracy, and where... despite everything, ALL contractual and union rights were maintained, including those related to the Company Bonus, which was never lower than the amount received before the earthquake.
And now, as they say, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The redundancy fund has been in place for over two months now, a positive sign for both today and tomorrow. Today, full wages are back for all workers, and tomorrow, this likely means we won't have to deal with redundancies when the new plants come online.
New facilities will be operational at the beginning of next year: the new automated warehouse and the new production line located inside the newly rebuilt warehouse, equipped with state-of-the-art earthquake-proofing. The new facility's potential will be significant, as will its modularity, capable of producing both classic and cutting-edge tile formats.
In just a few more months, then, the "new" Ceramica Sant'Agostino will resume full production. As Femca Cisl, we applaud the joint effort of the company and its workers, a remarkable response to the tragedy of 2012.
Ferrara, June 27, 2016
