Good news for all the employees of the Fiat-factory of Pomigliano d’Arco, where the Panda is built. The management decided to pay a bonus of 600 euros to all the employees this month, also those who are forced to stay at home and who haven’t even had the chance to work on the Fiat Panda yet. As of September 3^rd, the assembly line will start up again, says a spokesperson from the labor union Fim. Because of the shrinking market, this is two weeks later than normal after the summer break.

Fiat has kept a promise by doing this, while most people thought that wouldn’t happen. Fiat’s good intentions with the Italian factories in these difficult times are convincing more and more people these days. Tomorrow it will become clear whether more concrete steps will follow for, for example, Mirafiori. This sparkle of hope is unfortunately not a reflection of what’s happening on the local market; Italian sales dropped, again, by 32% compared to last year. That’s dramatic, and bear in mind that July 2011 was already a bad month. Meanwhile the criticism towards the government Monti from the Italian automotive sector keeps on getting worse. It is said that all the measures taken only lead to even more chaos and damage to the sector.