14 June, 2019Metal workers are taking to the streets of Milan, Florence and Naples today in a general strike over the future of their industry.
Members of three of IndustriALL Global Union's affiliates in Italy – FIM CISL, FIOM-CGIL and UILM – are taking coordinated action to call on the government and the private sector to:
- Invest to create jobs in environmentally sustainable industry
- Increase wages through collective bargaining
- End precarious work by extending rights to subcontractors and increasing workers’ participation
- Use productivity gains from new technology to create new jobs, raise wages and reduce working time
- Reduce taxes on workers and fight tax evasion
- Pay fair pensions and extend the social welfare net
- Invest in workplace health standards and guaranteed safety training
In a joint letter, IndustriALL and industriAll Europe express their solidarity and support to the metal workers:
“We fully support your industrial action in the face of great uncertainty concerning the future of the metal industry in Italy, given decreasing industrial production, loss of the value of work, and the increasing number of accidents and deaths at work.
“The government and the private sector must meet the challenges by investing in innovation, ecological sustainability, employment generation, and enforcement of stringent health and safety standards. It is also necessary to relaunch the domestic market, which would entail increasing wages, decreasing taxation, and guaranteeing a welfare state.
“Therefore, we rally behind you on your struggle to increase employment through public and private investment in strategic sectors, generating quality jobs in an environmentally sustainable fashion. It is also imperative to increase wages and lower taxation, reduce precarious employment, increase workers’ representation and collective bargaining power, and reform the Fornero law on pensions.“