(ANSA) - Rome, September 7 - A first meeting was held between representatives of aluminum maker Alcoa and Swiss multinational Glencore before Sardinia's governor Ugo Cappellacci Friday morning. They met in the Sardinian regional capital Cagliari to iron out a possible takeover deal that might save ALCOA's troubled aluminum plant in Portovesme on the Italian island of Sardinia. Three workers of ALCOA's Portovesme plant spent a third night in their bivouac atop a 70-metre silo during the night. The workers climbed to the top of a 70-metre silo on Tuesday in protest over plans by the American aluminium giant to shut down the smelter and put hundreds of jobs at risk. One of the workers, who has a heart condition, felt ill Thursday.
A plant doctor climbed the silo to attend to him, and the worker decided to remain.
Meetings and negotiations to discuss the fate of two high profile industrial disputes in Sardinia involving the ALCOA aluminum plant and the Carbosulcis coal company were scheduled for Thursday.
Workers at the Carbosulcis coal company's Nuraxi Figus mine in southwester Sardinia staged an eight-day protest 375 meters underground last week over the future of the mine. Unions at the Carbosulcis coal company announced Friday they will march with Alcoa workers in a protest scheduled Monday, September 10, in Rome.
Coal mine unions are expected to add about 500 people to hundreds of Alcoa workers, local administrators, traders and ordinary citizens set to participate in the demonstration. The ALCOA protest began Tuesday as a delegation of workers and union representatives met with the leaders of the three parties supporting the government of Premier Mario Monti in Rome to discuss the dispute. On Monday Italy's economic development ministry announced that hotly disputed work to begin shutting down parts of the Alcoa plant had been halted pending the outcome of Glencore's possible takeover deal. Alcoa has promised to keep all workers at its Portovesme plant employed through the end of the year.