ACQUI TERME. “If the property wanted, it would have many tools at its disposal to ferry the Spa until 2023 without firing anyone. And this is what we are asking: a new confrontation to advance our proposals, starting with the use of social safety nets ». The tones of Uiltucs Uil, Filcams Cgil, Fisascat Cisl (who yesterday, Monday 7 March, organized the first sit-in in front of the barred doors of the Grand Hotel in Piazza Italia, in Acqui) are firm, but leave the channels of dialogue open with the Genoese entrepreneur Alessandro Pater. In 2016 he bought the majority shares of the company and, after a slow agony, announced drastic cuts: definitive closure of the hotel and downsizing of care services, with related layoffs and reconversion of contracts. At risk is the future of about thirty workers who waved banners and flags.
«Work = Dignity», «Facts, not words». Then the space for a minute of silence in memory of Angelo Formica, an employee of the Grand Hotel who committed suicide in mid-February: “We are here to fight for him too, so that no one is in such a desperate condition anymore” he said on behalf of his colleagues Maura Cirio.
A garrison not shouted, but determined to be heard, both by the company and by a city that for now remains cold in the face of the decline of its Spa. In the square there are institutions and politics, president and partners of Salviamo Acqui and some faces of the trade associations, but there is a lack of citizens, who pass by and do not stop. «I would like to shout: ‘Acqui, wake up! ”, Because not only jobs are at risk but the fate of the city. As an entrepreneur and citizen, I wonder where our spirit, our sense of responsibility has gone, “says Gianna Debernardi, owner of the Hotel Acqui in Corso Bagni.
There are other initiatives on the agenda, but for now the unions are hoping above all to be able to reopen the confrontation with ownership to protect employees. “We knew that 2022 would be a difficult year, but the prospect it has outlined is unacceptable, because there are tools not to fire – explained Maura Settimo (Uiltucs), Stefano Isgrò (Filcams), Tonio Anselmo (Fisascat) -. We are talking about social safety nets and spaces that the financial institution will open, without counting the margins offered by contracts, such as the hour bank. By applying them, we could reach 2023, with the expected recovery also on the tourism front: ownership cannot continue to evade the tables, that’s where we have to talk about it “.