If you’ve ordered a Ducati from your local dealer and still haven’t received it, you may want to put the blame on future Ducati rider Valentino Rossi for the delivery delay.
This absurd story is currently happening at the Ducati factory in Bologna, where the management has asked their employees to give up their habitual ten minute hand washing break in the name of an increased labour productivity.
Historically, Ducati factory workers have always had this 10 minute break; five minutes before their lunch break they stop working to wash off dirt and grease and five minutes before heading home at the end of the day, but Ducati management has put a stop to this and it’s resulted in protests and half hour strikes from workers, backed by their unions who say that Ducati has no right to renege this privilege, that’s even specified in their collective contract.
We have to step up efficiency and this is one of the ways of doing it and it doesn’t hurt anyone,” says Luigi Torlai, Ducati personnel manager.
“We’ve asked our employees to work ten more minutes a day and at the end of the year it will help us.
” So what does Valentino Rossi have to do with this story? The unions are convinced that hiring Valentino Rossi has fallen on the shoulders of the workers who are paying the price and that Del Torchio is getting a swelled head and thinks he’s like Sergio Marchionne (Fiat and Chrysler’s CEO).
Only in Italy, only in Italy …