The Italy metalworkers' union Uilm has turned a decisive page in its leadership. At its 18th National Congress in Bari, delegates elected Davide Sperti as the new General Secretary, a move that signals a shift from crisis management to strategic industrial planning. Sperti, 43, replaces Rocco Palombella, who steered the organization for 16 years.
Why This Matters
• End of reactive approach: Uilm plans to stop chasing emergencies and demand a coherent industrial policy from government and employers.
• Three flagship crises: Ex-Ilva, Electrolux, and Stellantis disputes will test the new leadership's ability to protect jobs in strategic supply chains.
• Tech & ecology front: A new technical department will analyze how AI and green transition reshape factory floors—and worker rights.
From Factory Floor to National Stage
Sperti's trajectory mirrors the industrial heartland he now represents. Born in Taranto in the early 1980s, he started as a technician at Alenia Composite in Grottaglie in 2007, working in both engineering and production. By 2014 he had become a Uilm shop steward, rising through territorial roles to lead the Taranto branch in May 2022. In October 2025, he joined the national secretariat as organizational secretary, a stepping stone to his current post.
His election speech in Bari made clear he sees the role as more than succession planning. "We've inherited a solid foundation, but the challenges ahead require us to stop managing emergencies and start building a vision," Sperti told delegates. The emphasis on long‑term strategy rather than fire-fighting sets the tone for a union grappling with overlapping industrial crises.
The Crisis Triangle: Steel, Appliances, Autos
Three vertenze—major organized labor disputes that involve formal negotiations between unions, employers, and often government mediators—dominate the union's immediate agenda, each symbolic of broader structural faults.
Acciaierie d'Italia (the former Ilva steel plant in Taranto) remains under state-run special administration since 2024. Rome is seeking over €7 billion in damages from ArcelorMittal for alleged asset-stripping, while the blast furnace AFO1 sits under judicial seizure. A Milan court order set 24 August 2026 as the deadline to halt hot operations unless environmental permits (AIA) are updated. Two international sale tenders have failed; the American Flacks Group and India's Jindal Steel International are circling, but unions want guarantees on jobs and decarbonization before any handover.
Electrolux detonated a political crisis in May by unveiling plans to cut 1,700 positions—nearly 40% of its Italy workforce—and shutter the Cerreto d'Esi plant in the Marche. The Swedish appliance maker blames weak demand, high energy costs, and Asian competition. Industry Minister Adolfo Urso gave the company until 15 June to withdraw the plan; that deadline passed without resolution, prompting Uilm, Fim, and Fiom to declare permanent strike readiness and an eight-hour national stoppage.
Stellantis presents a mixed picture. First-quarter 2025 production rose 9.5% to 120,366 units, driven by the hybrid Fiat 500 at Mirafiori (+42.4%) and the new Jeep Compass at Melfi (+92.5%). Yet the Cassino plant worked only 22 days in the first five months of 2025, slashing paychecks and leaving suppliers in limbo. Unions warn that talks of partnerships with Chinese carmakers risk a slow industrial fadeout unless Rome and Stellantis commit to the 1 million vehicles by 2030 target.
What This Means for Metalworker Members
Sperti's program translates into three operational priorities that will shape collective bargaining and political pressure over the next mandate.
First, workplace safety moves to the forefront. Italy logs hundreds of industrial fatalities annually, a toll the new secretary called unacceptable. Expect tighter enforcement demands and contractual clauses linking safety audits to investment approvals.
Second, a dedicated AI and technology department will track how algorithms reshape shift patterns, performance metrics, and hiring. The goal is to ensure privacy, fair workload distribution, and retraining funds appear in company-level agreements before automation plans roll out.
Third, Uilm will push for binding clauses on public subsidies. Any firm receiving state aid—whether for green retrofits or R&D—would have to guarantee production volumes, headcount floors, and anti-relocation covenants for a fixed term. This approach borrows from French and German practice and aims to prevent the hollowing-out seen in past bailouts.
Governing Change, Not Surrendering to It
The congress theme—"Human Intelligence: Govern Change, Protect Employment"—reflects unease that markets alone cannot steer the ecological and digital upheaval underway. Sperti argued that neutrality on technology pathways, rather than ideological bans, should guide decarbonization: electric drivetrains, hydrogen, biofuels, and carbon capture all merit space in the toolkit.
On the green transition, Uilm insists the shift must be "just"—a term borrowed from EU jargon but given teeth through demands for retraining budgets, temporary income support, and regional investment compacts in areas losing fossil-fuel jobs. The metalworkers' sector is especially exposed: foundries, stamping plants, and thermal-engine suppliers face obsolescence unless new product lines arrive.
Artificial intelligence presents a parallel governance challenge. Unions worry that predictive maintenance algorithms and automated quality control will erode skilled roles while intensifying surveillance. Uilm's technical team will model job-impact scenarios and lobby for collective-bargaining rights over algorithmic management—ensuring, for instance, that shift rosters generated by software remain subject to worker consultation.
Backdrop: The 2025–2028 National Contract
Sperti inherits a freshly renewed national metalworking agreement (CCNL, or Contratto Collettivo Nazionale di Lavoro) that runs through 2028. Headline wage increases total €205.32 per month for the median C3 classification (mid-level skilled worker category), with flexible benefits rising to €250 annually. New provisions cover work-life balance, pathological leave, and conversion paths from fixed-term to permanent contracts.
Tax changes in the 2026 Budget Law—a reshaped IRPEF bracket and extended detassazione (tax exemption) of performance bonuses—will lift net pay further, though inflation and energy bills still squeeze household budgets. The contract framework gives Uilm leverage in company negotiations, but effectiveness depends on enforcement and the broader policy environment Sperti now seeks to reshape.
The Political Equation
Sperti's call for "courage" is aimed as much at Palazzo Chigi and Brussels as at employers. He wants Italy to champion a European appliance-sector plan mirroring automotive support, complete with anti-dumping measures against subsidized Asian imports. On steel, he backs state ownership during the ADI transition, arguing that private buyers lack incentive to shoulder environmental cleanup costs.
The new secretary also signals willingness to escalate. Permanent strike alerts, overtime bans, and coordinated stoppages across sites are tools Uilm has historically deployed with discipline. Whether Sperti can convert that militancy into policy wins will depend on Rome's appetite for industrial intervention and employers' readiness to negotiate rather than relocate.
What This Means for Residents and Workers
For residents working in manufacturing, automotive suppliers, or considering jobs in these sectors, these disputes signal potential instability in Italy's industrial heartland regions—particularly Piedmont (Stellantis production and suppliers), Taranto (steel manufacturing), and the Marche (appliances and household goods). Job security, wages, and plant futures remain in flux as these three major crises unfold over the coming 12–24 months.
Outlook: Construction Over Reaction
"The future isn't something you wait for; it's something you build," Sperti told the Bari congress—a line likely to appear on many a union banner in coming months. The rhetoric marks a tonal break from Palombella's tenure, which coincided with austerity, COVID-19, and serial corporate restructurings that left unions in defensive posture.
Sperti's agenda—proactive industrial policy, technology governance, supply-chain sovereignty—resonates with broader European debates on strategic autonomy. Yet translating vision into factory-floor results requires navigating a fragmented political landscape, global cost pressures, and the inertia of companies that find offshoring easier than reinvestment.
For Italy's 180,000 Uilm members and the wider metalworking sector, the test will be whether this leadership change delivers binding commitments on jobs, wages, and plant futures—or remains another round of congress promises overtaken by the next earnings call. The ex-Ilva, Electrolux, and Stellantis files on Sperti's desk will provide the first verdict.
