Le Marche, a small region in central Italy used to thinking of itself in
the plural even in its name, is perhaps too small to be consideredquantitatively significant on an economic level, yet it has somecharacteristics that make it a good observation point with regards tothe quality that characterizes the way of doing business in Italy. Infact, across the economic sectors, all possible organizational forms ofcompanies exist in the Marche region: small and large cooperatives,multinationals, manufacturing, factories, family businesses, startups,micro-enterprises, sole proprietorships, private-public mix... and soon. he has more than that. In this more than varied panorama, if it isnot always easy to identify the worker unequivocally as an employee(regardless of the tax loopholes through which companies sometimes makethose who are in fact an employee to all intents and purposes appear inthe VAT number), it is it is even more difficult to find a commondenominator that can catalyze individual needs into collective demands,which are fundamental even if only to defend employment andprofessionalism with regards to social security tout court: whether itis a question of having the certainty of a worthy salary or of returningto home you live from the work shift. Even focusing only on thehistorically most advanced sector in terms of contracts and trade unionstructuring, the metalworker, for years now requests for CIGO (OrdinaryRedundancy Fund) have been pouring in, which in the best cases becomereal structural tools of company administrations (to deal withcontraction-expansion dynamics of the markets in the large ones, orsimply due to the lack of managerial competence in the case of themedium-small ones), in the worst cases they are synonymous withactivities now on the verge of collapse: in fact, compared to 2022, morethan 6% of the local metalworking companies have closed their doors, 10%compared to 2013.The numbers only partially manage to hide the social disruption that allthis entails: parents who separate, single-income families with morethan two children who do not make it to the end of the month, youngpeople with no hope of obtaining permanent jobs, CVs full of experiencehaving to be reconverted, increasingly empty shopping carts and thespread of the high interest rate loan market. Metalworking, once thepride of the Vallesina especially for the professionalism andspecialization of the workers employed in large structured factories,but coming from the small town turning shops and the fields, with itsown intergenerational experience of union struggles and memory, todayfinds itself to be represented mostly by multinationals that relocateovernight or slowly and silently export highly specialized productionlines, but also by related industries characterized by the persistenceof small semi-family businesses typically relief valves for the problemsof large who entrust the production of parts and semi-finished productsto them to reduce costs.It is difficult to judge which of the two types of capitalistorganization is more advanced compared to history, WCM (World ClassManufacturing), corporate welfare and all those new human resourcemanagement techniques with a friendly face in fact seem to want to closean endless circle in a precarious balance of more or less intelligentexploitation.It is therefore not enough to focus only on the margin of maneuver thatyou have in medium and large companies, it is also important to be clearabout how to move in small companies, where everything is more liquidand less structured, where professionalism certainly has a value crucialbut is not recognized at all, indeed it is insulted and humiliated dailyby the bad way of organizing the work by the owner, who simplycarelessly and ignorantly manages, willy-nilly, to offload thelogistical burden and the health risks and safety directly for theworker. Small businesses almost never consider safety-related costs inthe costs necessary for production, and when they do so, they do not tryto think about resolving the problem in perspective, perhaps byinvesting in collective protection devices, machinery or work methodsthat alone they would perhaps be able to avoid the obligation to wearPPE which is often ignored by the worker who, by wearing it, would notbe able to carry out his job on time and without difficulty. All thisalmost never emerges when we talk about work and safety, numbers andstatistics are brought up, the workers are blamed, when instead theresponsibilities of the bosses and owners, although obvious, remaintrapped in the end only in faint colors in the local memory. History isalso made up of these small details which cannot be immortalized infigures but which, for us workers, can make the difference. What in thescientific terms of micro-sociology is defined as a qualitativeinterview can therefore become a useful tool for opening glimmers in adeep sea, unknown to most.We leave the rest of the space directly to a series of questions askedto a fellow anarchist, an artisan worker in the metalworking sector,with the intention of igniting the interest in sharing one'sexperiences, perhaps by answering the same questions, or by asking new ones.Factory of 8 people, producing transformers and electrical windings in Jesi"In your opinion, how does a small company differ from large industriesin terms of the production system and how does this impact your work?"More than anything, large companies change their machinery after sometime and at a logistical level they modify their production processes.For me, however, and I have been working there for twenty years, themachines were already old when I started, this means that theyconstantly break down, consequently the whole system is affected, theprocesses that are carried out often require undocumented phases,perhaps modified or even invented by the worker himself to prevent themachinery from jamming or production from running on time, all of thisrequires extreme attention from the worker. Furthermore, faults, ifminor, are resolved directly by the worker himself, otherwise the owneris called.Perhaps if on the one hand in large factories one could feel almost likechickens in a battery, alienated from always doing the same movements ina repetitive way, on the other hand, in small ones, the stress comesfrom always having to be careful to remember everything, from having tothat is, making up for organizational and technical deficiencies."What are the structural problems unequivocally caused by the boss andwhich could be resolved with little, for example by reorganizing the wayin which the work is set up?"Sometimes small creations or improvements to machinery made with somescrap metal, such as a personalized template to keep the transformers tobe resined in position, change our lives for the better, small personalsatisfactions that manage to speed up the production process but aboveall to lighten the load on those who work, be it me or those who comeafter me.And then, little by little we learned, when something goes wrong, toself-manage. For example, a colleague of mine had two uncoveredresistors on the well where she worked which produced too much heat, soanother colleague with only three components of a transformer created acover for these resistors so that the heat did not reach the colleaguedirectly. We learned to make do by giving each other a hand. Those smalldaily problems that the owner would never have solved, judging them tobe trivial things or wastes of time. "If self-management can solve small things, to what extent can it bepracticed without openly exposing oneself to safety risks and liabilityfor possible economic damage?"Unfortunately, situations are mostly determined by external factors,self-management alone is unable to glimpse what one's own limits are ina capitalist world. like when an access shutter to the warehouse broke,we had reached the point where in the morning we had to lift it up alittle by hand, the department head would come in and then lift it upwith the electric pallet truck. By insisting, going to talk more thanonce, we finally managed to convince the owner to have it fixed, eventhough obviously the technician had a lot of work and therefore thematter, before being resolved, lasted for some time.A similar situation happened when the forklift's battery finally died,we asked the employer several times to have it removed or replaced, andafter some time the acid from the exhausted battery produced so much badsmell that it could no longer be he had to work on it nearby, so wedecided to move it in front of the boss's office, who let's say that atthat point it didn't take him long to decide to have it taken away."But at RLS you also have the opportunity to see the problems from abroader angle. What could be improved on a structural level beyond thedaily routine?"A good practice would be the rotation of tasks and stations, as well asassignments. In this way the work could weigh less, for example themorning at the laminating machine and the afternoon at the terminalmachine, these are things that happen but randomly and for reasonsdependent on the quantity of work. Instead, if it were done in astructural way, as theoretically it should be by law (changing tasksevery two hours), many physical stresses, such as carpal tunnels, wouldalso be avoided. Of course, not everyone will certainly agree, there aresome jobs in which the cold or the heat is more affected, but even inthis case, taking turns would alleviate the discomfort for theindividual who instead works eight hours in the cold or in the heat.Beyond this there would also be an idea that is perhaps a bit fantastic,a dream more than anything else because I don't know of similarinitiatives: since Italy is part of the European community, why ifuniversity students do Erasmus it can't happen the same for the workers?Work for a few months in another country. A worker like me who producestransformers in Germany could work in my place for a few months and I inhis place. These exchanges could promote cultural openness, unionpreparation, dispel myths of happy islands for workers, and facilitatethe creation of workers' networks. Obviously all this would alsonecessarily increase the professionalism of the workers."In your work experience, what situation or episode have you experiencedthat you promised yourself that you would not want those who come afteryou or those who work in similar conditions to live with?"At the time I started working there were certain "tools", certainpeople, always ready to take you back without ever explaining orsuggesting anything to help you learn the trade, on the contrary, theyinsulted you, with phrases like "Oh , if I don't hear it, hit the car,pull away". Well, a young woman in her early twenties was recentlyassigned to my position, what I experienced undoubtedly pushes me to tryto keep up with her, to teach her as much as possible, the agitation andanxiety of those who who has just entered the world of work cannot andmust not be multiplied but rather reduced as much as possible by thosewho instead have the weight of years on their back and can take on theresponsibility of allowing the young person to have the necessary timeto learn, not to have to worry if a machine jams."If you had the opportunity, what would you like to ask a worker likeyou who lives in another region?"I would ask him what machinery he uses, if he has the same tasks as me,what techniques or improvements he has adopted to work better. As anRLS, I would ask him, if he had succeeded, how he would have made hisworkmates wear safety shoes, because I have tried them all, not evensaying that INAIL doesn't pay if you get injured by not wearing theappropriate PPE works.Luckily the young woman who works with me, from another generation,wears them without batting an eyelid, or rather consciously, and I'mhappy about this.Il Cantiere n. 20 ottobre 2023 ilcantiere@autistici.orghttp://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten