NO LAY-OFFS FOR THE GAMBERO ROSSO CHANNEL BUT IT WILL CUT UPC SRL, THE SUB-CONTRACTED COMPANY D.GUSTO SRL. CELLINI: “THE WORK RELATIONS FOR THAT COMPANY ARE NOT A QUESTION UNDER OUR COMPETENCY… TV IS A CENTRAL STRATEGY OF GAMBERO ROSSO”

“It is time for cuts to the taste channel”, read a recent headline of the leading Italian newspaper ‘Corriere della Sera’. It is a story that arrived straight from the workers who are being laid off, 14 employees to be precise, from Upc Srl, the sob-contracting company D.Gusto Srl, which, within the Gambero Rosso Group, manages RaiSat Gambero Rosso Channel.

Upc denied contract renewals on behalf of D.Gusto but Sergio Cellini, the general manager of Gambero Rosso Holding and of D.Gusto, explained in an exclusive interview with WineNews: “the contract with Upc expires at the end of January and as happens in any relation between client/supplier, because Upc is a simple supplier for us, it can or cannot be renewed. How the work relations are handled in that company is not, evidently, a question under our competency. In other words, it is like, for example, if Fiat ended supplies from a certain headlight company: Fiat can not be considered directly responsible for the workers of that company”.

RaiSat Gambero Rosso Channel is a satellite television channel that belongs to the Rai Group and inserted among Sky subscriptions; the agreement between RaiSat and Gambero Rosso occurred in 1999 but in just a few months (June 2009) the contract that unites the two editorial groups will expire, along with that between Rai and Sky.

“The negotiations with Upc, as well, occur simultaneously with the expiration of contracts with RaiSat and Sky” – continued Cellini – “in respect to which it is our best intention to renew them, given that television remains a central future strategy for the Gambero Rosso Group, but we must still define the details of the agreements…”.