BARI – The heat in Puglia is exceeding 40 degrees and about 140 employees of McDonald’s in Bari and Casamassima, in contact for hours with fryers and other equipment that overheats in the kitchens, will go on strike tomorrow to protest against “the absence of an adequate air conditioning system”. The strike is called by Filcams CGIL and by the metropolitan and provincial CGIL of the Apulian capital.
“There have been several cases of illness among the staff who work with hallucinating temperatures – explains Domenico Ficco, secretary of the CGIL Bari – and even when an attempt was made to add portable air conditioners, the electrical system did not hold up”. The unions urgently ask for closure to the public on red dot days and the related recourse to layoffs for male and female workers as provided for by the latest INPS provisions until a decisive technical intervention is possible.
Tomorrow, meanwhile, the workers of the Rm and Hb companies, McDonald’s brand operators, will cross their arms from 18.30 to 20.30 in front of the restaurants in Bari, in via Sparano, and from 21 to 23 in Casamassima, in the parking lot of the restaurant which is located twenty kilometers from Bari.
The trade unionists Ficco and Antonio Miccoli, general secretary of Filcams Cgil Bari, underline that «the category has been denouncing for years the lack of an adequate air conditioning system in restaurants and especially in kitchens. The current prohibitive temperatures are causing frequent illnesses among the staff»