La transizione (dall’alto) che non c’è? Il polo della componentistica auto di Bari

The chapter is dedicated to the case of the automotive hub in Bari. The Bari-Modugno industrial area is home to one of the main automotive component production hubs in southern Italy, employing around 10,000 people, including related industries. The two largest companies are Bosch, a multinational owned by the German Bosch Foundation, which includes a production site and a research and development centre, and Marelli Europe SpA, formerly part of the FCA group and now owned by the Japanese components company Calsonic Kansei, part of the US investment fund KKR. Over the years, the two companies have experienced periods of crisis with significant repercussions in terms of employment, due to the transformation of production in the automotive sector and the crisis in the production of internal combustion engine cars, particularly diesel. The two com- panies have addressed these periods of crisis by adopting different industrial strategies: while Bosch has preferred to encourage its workers to leave through redundancy incentives and outplacement, effectively maintaining the plant’s single-product focus on the production of diesel engine pumps, Marelli has significantly diversified its production, expanding its product range to include components for both internal combustion engines and electric motors. The analysis carried out shows, on the one hand, that the different industrial strategies, combined with the trade union history of the two plants, have had a significant impact on workers’ perceptions of the transition, which appear to be structured more on the basis of the plant where they are employed than on trade union membership. On the other hand, the attempts at transition from above made by the two companies have had problematic results.