Cristian Pederzini, owner of Italpizza, says that his food company is “a fairytale story”.
This is the story. An Emilian company that has been producing frozen pizzas since 1991, exports them all over the world and exceeds 120 million euros in turnover, at a certain point – six years ago – decides that a large slice of workers must be outsourced, in short, outsourced to cooperatives.
With the new appearance and the new contract, employees who have become “external” (including many immigrant women), however, gradually see their workloads, flexible schedules, night and holiday calls increase. Time clocks arrive for you to go to the bathroom and, according to some complaints, no harnesses are provided when you are sent to clean the roof. Then, after a while, some employees join the Si Cobas union.
Despite the pressure from above and some transfers, the newly unionized people proclaim a series of strikes, sometimes with pickets, others without. The union denounces demotion and humiliating tasks for those who join. A delegate’s car is mysteriously set on fire.
The tension is still growing in the first half of 2019, when there are charges and clashes with the police outside the factory. In the meantime, the Salvini decree has also entered into force, so the crime of road blocking is triggered at the first picket, which is added to an unauthorized demonstration, resistance to a public official and other charges for the clashes. 66 workers who participated in the protests are denounced and Italpizza forms a civil party against Si Cobas, asking them for 500 thousand euros as compensation for delays in delivering pizzas due to workers’ protests.
On 3 October the Modena court, in the preliminary hearing, accepted the legitimacy of the request: in the event of a conviction, Si Cobas will have to compensate Italpizza. In memory of those involved in workers’ struggles, it is the first time in the history of the republic that a trade union has been asked to compensate for the production delays created by a mobilization. The problem is that, if this thing passes, it probably won’t be the last, with all due respect to article 40 of the constitution on the right to strike. Truly “a fairytale story”, that of Italpizza.