Saturday, January 24, 2026, marks the 104th day of protests outside the gates of PMC Automotive, in the industrial area of San Nicola di Melfi. In front of the plant, under a tent that resists the wind and winter, a handwritten sign says it all: "The Tent of Resistance. Starts October 13, 2025. Ends...?" The question remains open. The struggle, however, continues.
The workers at PMC Automotive are not here to testify, but to defend their jobs. Until a few years ago, they worked inside the Stellantis headquarters (formerly SATA), where they assembled components for the automotive group. The move to the former ITCA plant was presented as a technical and organizational decision, with no employment consequences. "Nothing would have changed," they said. That wasn't the case.After a few years, Stellantis effectively dumped those workers on another employer, PMC Automotive. This move led to the now-familiar outcome: an end to orders, workers sidelined, while production continues at the Stellantis headquarters and even production increases are announced. Not a general crisis in the auto industry, but a precise selection process: those who stay inside and those who are expelled from the supply chain.
"Thrown out onto the street, we decided not to go home," the workers wrote. "We have been occupying the factory for over a hundred days, asking Stellantis, which created the problem, to solve it and let us return to the factory so we can work, bring home a salary, and survive."
The picket line is not a symbolic choice, but the only possible response in the absence of concrete solutions.
The PMC situation is not an isolated one. Alongside them are the former Tiberina workers, who have also been virtually empty of Stellantis orders and have been on permanent picket lines since early November. Same supply chain, same mechanism, same fate. A model that affects the entire supply chain and is progressively emptying the industrial area of San Nicola di Melfi.
It's no coincidence that on the day of the national strike called by the CGIL, PMC and Ex Tiberina led the march through the industrial area. This was no coincidence. Putting the spotlight on those who experience outsourcing and abandonment firsthand means pointing out where the real conflict is concentrated today. Donato Auria's words, while Bob Marley's "Could You Be Loved" and "Bella Ciao" alternated over the loudspeakers, sounded like a warning: the union unity evoked does not always translate into action capable of truly impacting the situation.
At the institutional level, meanwhile, the delays continue. After more than a hundred days of protests and various discussions at MIMIT, the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, the outlook remains uncertain. There has been talk of "investors," of factories sold "for one euro," of subsidized concessions. But, as the workers complain, no real entity has yet emerged, and Stellantis's willingness to help has been reduced to a generic "evaluation of a subsidized concession for the plant." Nothing that guarantees stable employment, nothing that restores dignity to those who have been expelled from the production cycle.
On January 19, 2026, the workers wrote to the presidents of the Basilicata, Puglia, and Campania regions. Not out of formality, but because this dispute transcends regional borders. Many of the workers involved come from Puglia and Campania, and the dismantling of the supply chain is not a local issue, but an interregional one. "We believe we cannot and should not remain inactive," they write, calling for joint action to hold Stellantis accountable.
Amid so much absence, gestures of solidarity are also arriving from below. On January 15th, a delegation from the Lavello Public Assistance Volunteer Association brought food to PMC and former Tiberina workers. "They don't solve your problems," they wrote, "but they want to remind you that you are not alone. Work is dignity." It's the sign of a community struggling to hold on, while multinationals and institutions postpone.
Today, after more than a hundred days, the only certainty is that the workers are still outside the gates, in the dead of winter, with layoffs slow to arrive and no structural solution in sight. The protest continues not out of obstinacy, but out of necessity. Because when work is canceled, resistance becomes a form of survival.
They wrote it on a banner in front of the gates: "Happy 2026 to those who fight, to those who don't give up, to those who don't adapt, despite everything."
The tent is still there. The responsibility, however, rests entirely with those who have decided to shift the social cost of this restructuring onto the shoulders of the workers.
Totò Caggese
https://umanitanova.org/melfi-presidio-pmc-stellantis/
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Link: (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #3-26 - Melfi - PMC Stellantis Presidium - Over one hundred days of worker protest at PMC-Stellantis in Melfi. (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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