Dear manager,
I was pleased to record that the interview I gave to the Republic Monday 9 August opened a debate in the country, also with simplifications and exploitation of the positions expressed that the CGIL is not willing to accept. For responsibility and clarity, in order to seek solutions to the difficult problems we are experiencing, I will focus on some issues.
First of all, the CGIL has supported and continues to support the vaccination campaign in Italy and around the world. We are fighting for the suspension of the patents on vaccines that are preventing the use of vaccinations in economically weaker countries. Unfortunately this is not happening, while the virus knows no boundaries. Furthermore, the CGIL, unlike others, has never raised questions of principle on the instrument of the Green Pass, even in the presence of European recommendations not to adopt discriminatory rules.
Let’s say something very simple: if the government believes that the vaccine should be mandatory for everyone, it immediately proposes a law to Parliament. We are not against it. Our Constitution indicates this solution to hold together the inviolable rights of people and the need to guarantee and protect public health, the interest and safety of the community. Why doesn’t the government do this? Together with CISL and UIL we told the President of the Council: this matter is up to the government and Parliament and cannot simply be delegated to the social partners. And it is wrong to think of achieving the same goal surreptitiously (for example, by comparing company canteens to restaurants or by making the Green Pass mandatory by making the worker pay the tampon). A sanctioning and punitive logic towards the world of work only risks increasing divisions and removing the objective of mass vaccination.
Secondly, the safety protocols with the possibility of vaccinations in the company were created thanks to the mobilization of male and female workers and in contrast with those who claimed the prevalence of economic interest over the safety of work, companies and the country. For this reason the CGIL is not available to accept lessons from anyone. If today the Prime Minister can say that we are in economic recovery, this is due precisely to the protocols and the extraordinary commitment of male and female workers.
Thirdly, together with the vaccine, other interventions are needed to defeat the virus that no one talks about today. The Green Pass is required for long-distance transport. Good! However, we all know that the still unsolved problem lies in the local public transport and regional railways on which most of the users pass. We need investments, quality of means, experimentation of different times and hours of the cities. Instead we stopped a year and a half ago. As in the school, the theme is how to overcome the overcrowding of the classes and therefore how to guarantee distancing also through additional recruitments.
At the same time, a national plan is needed to stop the massacre of accidents and deaths at work. Enough job insecurity, training and prevention are needed, inspectors must be hired and increased, coordination between the various institutional subjects is needed, the points license for companies must be introduced, the right to elect the workers’ representative for safety in all must be guaranteed the workplace. Finally, to create stable, safe and quality work for young people, women. The South is the compass, the priority for rebuilding the unity of the country and designing our future. Investments must go in this direction, including a new universal system of protection and training for the entire world of work.
Specific meetings with ministers are scheduled for early September, and the Prime Minister has undertaken to initiate a discussion to quickly create a protocol that allows the social partners, both nationally and in the territories, to enter into the merits of the quality of the investments of the NRP and its link with a new industrial policy.
You can agree or not. These are our proposals. This has been the indisputable commitment of the whole CGIL, its delegates and its delegates in the workplace in the very difficult months that we have behind us. And it is with this sense of responsibility that we ask the government to be involved before decisions are made and not informed when things are done.
Maurizio Landini is general secretary of the CGIL
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