Cerreto d’Esi (Ancona), September 15, 2026 – Over 800 people, a single chorus echoing through the streets of the small village a few kilometers from Fabriano and one certainty: the battle against the closure of the plant and the cuts by the multinational group does not end here. This morning the national march of Electrolux workers, called by Fim, Fiom, and Uilm as part of the eight-hour strike involving all the Italian sites of the Swedish group, started from Piazza Lippera.
The slogan: “We will never give up”
A colorful and determined procession, marked by flags, songs, and the chorus “We will never give up” made up of local workers but also delegations from other plants in Solaro, Porcia, Treviso, and Forlì to express united solidarity in the face of a plan that foresees over 1,400 redundancies nationwide and directly puts 170 jobs at risk with the closure of the Marche site.
In the front row national political figures and local institutions
In the front row, together with the workers, were national political figures and local institutions. Among those present were the President of the Marche Region Francesco Acquaroli, M5s deputy Chiara Appendino, the national secretary of Sinistra Italiana Nicola Fratoianni, the mayor of Cerreto d’Esi David Grillini, and numerous local administrators.
Governor Acquaroli: “Electrolux withdraw the plan and reopen negotiations”
“We ask Electrolux to set aside the industrial plan, to prevent the closure of
Cerreto d’Esi and return to working on the tools to share for a true and serious revival.” This is the appeal of the President of the Marche Region, Francesco Acquaroli. “From the very beginning – he said – we reiterated at the national table the willingness to deploy all possible tools to prevent the closure. We do not believe that a corporate restructuring can pass through the closure of a plant.” The President of the Region also recalled “the willingness of the national government, even to intervene on the context of European legislation.” “In front of all this – he added – there is instead a closure by the company that we consider unacceptable and that represents a really bad signal.” For Acquaroli the goal must be “the protection of employment and the household appliance sector in Italy and Europe.” “The closure of Cerreto – he concluded – is a signal that we absolutely must prevent and want to prevent.”
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Mayor Grillini: “The closure would be a social drama”
“We have been living this drama for four or five months and all the tables at the Ministry, technical and political, have basically brought us back to square one.” So said the mayor of Cerreto d’Esi, David Grillini, during the demonstration. “Losing a company like this – he added – would be a big problem for the entire social fabric of the inland area. Here 170 people work and for many it would be very difficult to relocate.”
Tibaldi (Fiom): “We demand that the company withdraw the plan and that the government keeps the promises it made”
On the union front, the firmness of the position was reiterated by the national secretary of Fiom, Barbara Tibaldi, who emphasized the symbolic and real value of the mobilization: “Today in Cerreto d’Esi all Electrolux plants are present. Hundreds, thousands of workers have chosen to strike not only to defend the smallest plant of the group that the company wants to close, but because the closure of Cerreto speaks the same language as the 1,500 layoffs, the productions that are moving to Thailand and China, while at the same time more sacrifices are asked of the workers.” The Fiom leader then made a clear request both to the company management and the government: “It is unacceptable. We demand that the company withdraw the plan and that the government keeps the promises it made.”
Fratoianni (Avs): “Our strongest support to this fight that has lasted for months”
Words of harsh criticism of industrial dynamics and the absence of central institutions also came from Nicola Fratoianni (Avs), who came to Cerreto d’Esi to show solidarity with the blue-collar workers: “We are here at this Electrolux workers’ demonstration because it is important to be present in all the fault lines of crisis in our industrial system. And to show our strongest support to this fight that has lasted for months.” Fratoianni pointed the finger at the financial logics guiding the multinational’s choice: “The industrial system of our country is heading towards desertification, but it is a desertification not dictated by the market, in this case Electrolux is not in crisis, but dictated by speculative dynamics. We are facing a classic production delocalization: the hoods from Cerreto go to Poland, the refrigerators go to China and so on. The truth is that we are facing an economic model in which profit daily devours the real economy.”
The deputy: “The question we keep asking ourselves and others is: where is Minister Urso?”
The deputy then directly called out the government: “The question we keep asking ourselves and others is: where is Minister Urso? He had defined the industrial plan unacceptable… but today he has disappeared and the future of these workers is exactly as precarious as before. We ask the government for an answer, the definition of an industrial plan and energy policies capable of lowering the cost of energy for families and businesses.” The march then symbolically ended right in front of the gates of the Electrolux plant in Cerreto d’Esi, guarded by the workforce waiting for the dispute to reopen on different bases in the coming days at institutional venues.
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