Fifth Fiat factory idled

[TerryMason]

Since the fate of Jeep is now tied to that of Fiat I thought I'd post this.

The ongoing truckers blockade has now shut down almost all Fiat production in Italy. The Mirafiori, Sevel Sud, Melfi, Cassino and Pomigliano factories have been idled and workers sent home for the rest of the week because it is impossible for supplies to be delivered.

Fiat S.p.A. says it is losing 4,200 units of production per day.

I wonder how long it take before they start moving the production from Italian to US plants.

I'm not really up on Italian politics, so I had to do some research to see what all the hub bub was about:

Blame the truck drivers, who are blockading roads and highways. They in turn are blaming Prime Minister Mario Monti’s austerity and economic liberalization plans, which are pushing up fuel prices and threaten to open their professions to competition they do not want. The blockades and protests represent the first real push-back to Mr. Monti’s reform effort since his unelected government came to power in November, at the height of the Italian debt crisis.

The liberalization effort is part two of Mr. Monti’s fast-track “Save Italy” effort. The first part, which came last month, was a €30-billion austerity program anchored by higher taxes and cuts to public spending. Its goal is to eliminate the relatively small (by euro zone standards) budget deficit by 2013. The second part is the liberalization package, designed to pry open the guilds that protect the jobs of taxi drivers, truckers, gas station owners, pharmacists, notaries and lawyers.