A meeting between Leonardo and the unions is expected in December to discuss the prospects for the Grottaglie plant, one of the factories that supply components for Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers.

Some workers' representatives told Reuters as the defense and aerospace group studies a plan for its aerostructures division.

Leonardo is looking for new business opportunities for the division, which has felt the effects of Boeing's recent crisis and cannot continue to rely on a single customer, according to CEO Roberto Cingolani in early November.

Cingolani said Leonardo is considering the possibility of spinning off the division-which develops and produces some of the components for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner-and forming an alliance with financial and/or industrial partners that could help the group in reorganizing the business unit.

A plan for aerostructures, which employs about 4,000 people in four plants between Puglia and Campania, will be presented in March as part of the business plan update.

"We fear that a carve-out (of aerostructures) could result in a loss of production and jobs with an effect that would be devastating for the region," Alessio La Tartara, UILM union representative at the Leonardo plant in Grottaglie, told Reuters.

The Grottaglie site, in the province of Taranto, produces two fuselage sections of Boeing's 787.

Despite Leonardo's early attempts to diversify production with work on helicopters, delays in the Boeing program have caused the pace of production at Grottaglie to plummet, and more than 900 workers out of nearly 1,200 will be on rotating layoff until Jan. 5.

Tartara also said a meeting with Leonardo top management in Rome should be held around mid-December to discuss developments at Grottaglie after Jan. 5.

A Leonardo spokesperson said a precise date for talks with the unions has not yet been set.

Following Cingolani's comments on the potential carve-out of aerostructures, the unions have received reassurances from the company that the aerostructures business unit will not be sold, but workers' representatives are asking for information on potential partners, how they would join the group, and details on the division's revitalization plan.

(Francesca Landini, Giulia Segreti, editing Stefano Bernabei)