1 May: CGIL, CISL and UIL in the square in Marghera for a "decent work". Processions in different cities

It has been chosen Marghera (Venice), iconic place of Italian industry and symbol of the necessity and challenges linked to new transitions and reconversions, for the national event which CGIL, CISL and UIL they organized for the May 1st.

Decent work

“Decent work. Bargaining, new protections and new rights for an Italy that is changing in the era of artificial intelligence” is the slogan of the event which sees the three general secretaries return to the same stage Maurizio Landini, Daniela Fumarola e Pierpaolo Bombardieri.

At the center of official speeches is undoubtedly the work decree approved by the government and the “the right salary“, measures welcomed positively by the three confederal unions, but with the inevitable differences in views. Hundreds of trade unionists arrived in Marghera from all over Italy.

Why Marghera

Marghera was chosen, according to secretary Bombardieri, “because it is one of those places where global transformation has put an industrial choice from a long time ago into crisis”.

Fumarola also held the same opinion and explained that “Marghera represents the combination of one of a series of issues: here there was that company that fired 37 workers with a WhatsApp because they were replaced by artificial intelligence; here there are important productive industrial realities and we also chose it because it represents the contradictions that then developed throughout our country: we are here as if in a symbolic place to say that decent work can be achieved and achieved through bargaining”.

“Porta Marghera – Secretary Landini finally commented – represents a symbol of the industrial past of the country and of its growth. Today the crisis here is evident and Porto Marghera from a certain point of view also represents the change that must be made in terms of production and economic development”.

Landini, no benefits for workers from DL Lavoro, not a euro

Speaking of Work decree the general secretary of the CGIL Maurizio Landini explained that “this provision does not give a euro to the workers”. “I found it strange that they talk about a Labor Decree on May 1st, Labor Day, and then 960 euros go to the company but nothing changes for the workers from tomorrow, not a single euro so what benefit do the workers have from a provision of that nature there?” he then added. “It has been shown – he continued – that encouraging hiring does not necessarily create jobs also because a company needs to work to hire and if it doesn’t need to work it doesn’t hire. Finally, on the other hand we are faced with the fact that this provision does not cancel pirated contracts which are the real problem we have”.

Of work? Fumarola, satisfied, it’s a step forward

We are “quite satisfied with the labor decree because compared to what we heard in the press conference, three fundamental principles have been established: the first that good bargaining is that signed by CGIL, CISL and UIL, i.e. the trade unions and professional organizations that are comparatively more representative at a national level; the second that the Tec, i.e. the Overall Economic Treatment, is the reference for the salary, but not only for the salary because for us the contract is not just the salary part but is a set of rights and protections; and then a further important piece is that companies that want to use the resources made available, therefore the incentives for young and southern women, can only do so if they apply the comparatively more representative contracts. I believe that this is a step forward that has never been made”, said Daniela Fumarola, general secretary of the CISL on her arrival in Marghera.

“To all this we add that this decree is the first piece of that responsibility pact that we as CISL have been asking for since last year and that we think is the key to solving the other problems that our country has. It starts with work but then we have to move on to all the other issues” he then concluded.

Bombardieri, DL Lavoro important result; not obvious

For the general secretary of the Uil, Pierpaolo Bombardieri, “Having obtained recognition from the government that the contracts signed by the most representative organizations are those that speak of a decent wage and having inserted the principle of conditionality for company incentives is an important result for me, it is a non-obvious result that gives us the possibility of starting to discuss how to improve that wage to which the contracts today refer”.

“For the first time – he added – there is a political act by a government that recognizes that a decent wage is the one of the most representative contracts. In recent months we have waged a no-holds-barred battle, even with the judiciary, to contest those trade union organizations and those employers’ associations that signed contracts that limited workers’ rights and wages”.