In the photo: Giorgio Napolitano with the Minister of Economic Development Bersani, awarding the Insignia of a Knight of Labour to Sergio Marchionne

The words of Minchionne, one of the modern three kings from the East that brings for the workers the closure of the factories instead of myrrh and trade union rights, are important. They are words of zen reflection for every sacked worker. For meditation with a spanner in your hand. Minchionne deals with petrol-fuelled cars, a sector that has been in decline for 12 years. Finished. Completely done for. He admits that. No problem. The car market is “horrible”. More so for Fiat than for the other manufacturers. But that’s a detail. Anyway his income remains extraordinary. He has succeeded in this task where there was failure on the part of the the Triple Trade Union of the 1970s. He’s managed to make his salary a variable that is independent of the market. The causes for Fiat’s losses are to be sought elsewhere, definitely not in the management, in fact “The problem of excess capacity has to be tackled at a European level. I trust that we will find a solution. We cannot continue to lose at the current levels: the system would not stand up.” Minchionne however is standing up like no one else with a salary package and stock options. In March, Fiat lost 36.08% of sales in relation to the same month in 2011. Alfa lost 45.59%, almost half its production. The worst result in the last 32 years. Minchionne is reassuring “Fiat is not leaving Italy”, but the country “has to change, abandoning a passive attitude in relation to the present.” He’s a decisionist in relation to labour reform that “has to be done. There’s no alternative.” He’s a mentor for the new class of leaders in a conference at La Bocconi university (but who invited him, perhaps Rigor Montis to explain how Fiat will kick the bucket? And why did the students not boo him?) “Rights have to be protected but if we continue to live only by rights, we will die of rights.” The rights of the workers, this is the problem. And especially for a Knights of Labour appointed by Napolitano. Minchionne, from Chieti in the region of Abruzzo, “vuò fà l’americano,” {wants to be like an American}, but he was born in Italy and in the period 2004-2009 he received payment in shares valued at 255 million euro, that’s about 38 million euro a year: 1,037 times the wage of one of his average workers. To make up for this, over a five year period, the share price of the Fiat Group has gone from 23 euro in July 2007 to the value at the start of April (after the spin off) of about 4.3 euro. With figures like these (collapse in share price and collapse in sales) any CEO would have been sacked instantly. Marchionne, what’s your secret?