Bologna, 6 May 2023 – Cgil, Cisl e UiI they return to the square, this time unitary. The stage is to piazza Maggiore from which one starts this morning multifaceted mobilizationentitled ‘For a new season of work and rights’.
More than 20,000 people are participating today in Bolognaat the demonstration against the government (PHOTOS), to achieve policy change Workof those tax e social security.
The initiative engages the three confederal trade unions throughout the month of May, between meetings in the workplace and other two interregional eventsalways on Saturday: one a Milano on the 13th, the other a Napolinext May 20th.
| 9:44 | Demonstration underway | The invasion of the CGIL-CISL-UIL trade unions has begun in Bologna: about 10,000 people are in Bologna to take part in the great demonstration against the government. The people of work marched in via Indipendenza, whistles in their mouths, to reach piazza Maggiore. The national secretary of the CGIL, Maurizio Landini, was besieged by reporters. “This is just the beginning, we won’t stop, a general strike is not out of the question.” Great expectations for the arrival of Elly Schlein, national secretary of the Democratic Party |
| 10:13 | Flags in the square | “Stop war”. “More public health and more respect for the environment”. These are some of the banners displayed in Piazza Maggiore. The interventions from the stage will begin at 10.30, the Crescentone is already filling up with red, green-and-white and blue flags. |
| 10:15 | Lepore: “In the streets against a government that precarious work” | Mayor Matteo Lepore welcomed the CGIL and Maurizio Landini procession in Piazza Maggiore, under the Neptune. “I didn’t march with them, I was mayor,” Lepore specified. Who then attacked the Meloni government. “We are here in the square against a government that does not decide, which with its decrees makes work more precarious. We must be here with our people to intervene on the shortcomings of this government, in the squares, in the workplace, everywhere”, said Lepore referring to a new season of good relations between the center-left and the unions, after the tear we render of the Jobs Act. Piazza Maggiore crowded, flags and balloons with the three colors of the three unions, red, green and blue. Covered by Landini’s applause, coffee in paper cups whizzed among the militants. Elly Schlein is expected, the workers of La Perla present with a banner in the shape of a bra. |
| 10:25 | Landini: what’s wrong with the work decree passed by the government | At the center of Landini’s criticisms is the decree on employment passed in recent days by the Government, which “we did not like in terms of method, because it was not discussed with us, and in substance, because the increase that is being made goes into direction requested by us but lasts six months, while it should be structural”. The Government, he adds, “has not put a euro on the renewal of public contracts, and at the same time we are facing a tax reform that continues to harass work and does not affect financial income and tax evasion. Then the vouchers spread and temporary contracts are liberalised, which is unacceptable to us”. |
| 10:38 | Who participates in the event | There are no party flags, but there are several local and regional representatives of the PD present, from the provincial secretary Federica Mazzoni to the regional secretary Luigi Tosiani, then Andrea De Maria Luca Rizzo Nervo Raffaele Donini. Present a group of Five Stars with a “No to war” flag. The former governor Vasco Errani stopped to talk at length about political-union arrangements with Maurizio Landini and Matteo Lepore |
| 10:51 | The arrival of Elly Schlein | The secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, arrived in Piazza Maggiore: upon her arrival she was welcomed, among others, by the mayor Matteo Lepore, with a hug. |
| 11:18 | Schlein: “Bologna is the city of rights” | Embraced by the crowd, Elly Schlein was immediately stopped by the worker of La Perla and by the workers of the emergency room. “We have to fight against this government.” Schlein then made a press point with the journalists. “It’s important to be here in Bologna, which is the city of rights, here the first rider charter was signed – said Schlein, who has a Saga Coffee T-shirt -. We are in the streets to reiterate our opposition to a crazy decree of the government, launched on May 1st and which harms workers by precarious work”. On the relationship with the Five Stars. “We have common battles and I think we will fight them side by side, inside and outside parliament. Did I expect Conte here? No, the agendas are irreconcilable”. Several Five Star exponents present, there is also the regional councilor Silvia Piccinini. Schlein gave Deputy Mayor Emily Clancy a warm hug |
| 11:35 | Over 20 thousand people at the demonstration | There are over 20 thousand demonstrators in the square today in Bologna |
Requests to the government
After the ‘ripping’ of the general strike of the last December – called only by CGIL and UIL – the major trade unions are once again sharing a common language to ask the government for a change of pace on the industrial, economic, social and employment policies that the Meloni executive has begun to decline but with a trajectory still very distant from the one that is reiterated today from the stage by the general secretaries Maurizio Landini, Luigi Sbarra and Pierpaolo Bombardieri.
