I work, I dream of an “entrepreneur” union
Those who don’t have a job desperately look for it, those who do go on strike (legitimate right) to improve their position, those who are losing it protest because, very often, they are not responsible for possible or sought-after excuses such as corporate decentralization or for other reasons. About that there are more than 260 open positions on the government table, with the risk of closures and consequent loss of work and salary. I have always found that the “struggles” for the survival of these companies is carried out not only by the employees, but above all by the unions who seek to protect jobs.
Today, we have a number of companies that for various reasons cannot or do not want to talk to the trade unions or to the workers. The ownership of many of these companies are in the condition of being sold to other entrepreneurs. We all agree that it is not easy to open negotiations where there are hundreds of employees in the company who, in addition to their salary, need to set aside the severance indemnity, amounts almost always entered in the balance sheet, but almost never set aside financially. So what to do?
Ownership could be taken over, perhaps in two ways: with the company lease (if possible in full) or by acquiring the entire company. Obviously the employees alone are not able to carry out these interventions (but sometimes they have succeeded), mostly onerous in the immediate future, but it is essential to check whether the banks are willing to finance the “new properties”. Well the problem, as usual, boils down to the question of money. Question who might be able to secure this funding? For once I would like to leave aside the State or the participating bodies and directly involve the trade unions. The latter, as far as I know, are property owners and have a “good” financial reputation.
Another question: why don’t the unions unite and replace the old owners by running the companies themselves? Someone could argue that it is not in their nature to be “entrepreneurs”, but perhaps it is not so, because if every time a company is in crisis they say that with certain systems it is possible to start again as and better than before, they probably know what they are talking about. So here is my dream. If all unions embraced this idea, I believe that many precarious situations today would be resolved in the blink of an eye. One last consideration. If by chance the unions are not up to managing these establishments, not even with internal staff, they can always resort to the managerial market where they can find people with skills and experience capable of managing the company’s complexities. I close with a Latin proverb: labor omnia vincit – effort (commitment) wins everything.
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