Agovernment plan to close the formerly highly polluting and still loss-making giant ex ILVA steelworks at Taranto in Puglia has been withdrawn and a redundancy fund plan also withdrawn, Puglia Governor Michele Emiliano said after talks with Business and Made in Italy Minister Adolfo Urso in Rome Friday saying that trade unions and workers would be relieved by the news.
"The closure plan and redundancy fund have been completely withdrawn, and above all, we have been assured that the former Ilva plant in Taranto will continue to supply coils to the Genoa plant," said the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) official.
"Given the current situation, this reassures both the union and the workers, and also all of us, as the Puglia Region and local authorities." The works, once the biggest single employer in southern Italy, have been linked to high cancer rates in Taranto, especially among children.
The site has gone through a string of owners and had been undergoing an environmental revamp before the closure plan was recently announced.
