On February 16, the anniversary of the Via Mariti massacre, a
well-attended demonstration took place in Florence, which saw thepresence, in addition to the Florentine grassroots unions promoting the
initiative, various organizations, including the "ex panificio"
committee, active for years against speculation in the Via Mariti area,
speculation that had given rise to the construction of the Esselunga
supermarket and the installation of the construction site of the
massacre, now closed. Also present, among others, were the Tuscan
Regional Health Coordination, Democratic Medicine and the association of
the relatives of victims of the Viareggio railway massacre. The wife of
Luigi Coclite, one of the workers who were killed, also wanted to
participate in the initiative with a short and touching speech. At the
end of the demonstration, the procession moved through the area around
the construction site on Via Mariti, with the commitment to continue,
beyond the terrible anniversary, in the fight against speculation,
against exploitation, for real safety, so that there are no more deaths
or accidents at work
Accidents at work in the last decade have had war numbers, a war from
work and on work: 17,000 deaths, about a million accidents with serious
injuries: hands, legs, bodies sacrificed on the altar of profit.
In the first 10 months of 2024 there were 890 deaths at work, 2.5% more
than the previous year.
On February 16, 2024, one year ago, the massacre at the Esselunga
construction site in via Mariti: 5 dead, not five numbers but five names
that we want to remember: Mohamed Toukabri (54 years old), Mohamed El
Farhane (24 years old), Taoufik Haidar (45 years old), Bouzekri Rahimi
(56 years old), Luigi Coclite (60 years old).
Only in these days, after a year, the first suspects appear, with the
seizure of Rdb ITA, the company that built the beam that collapsed and
crushed the workers, and a notice of investigation to three of its top
figures, as well as to the manager of structural works, attributing the
characteristics of the beam as the determining factor in the massacre.
We do not think that we can limit ourselves to this, but we need to
delve deeper into the responsibilities of the employers of the
contracting companies and of the client of the work. What also emerges
from the testimonies made public is the pressure from the client to
speed up the work and deliver the building in a very short time: the
urgency of opening yet another useless shopping center, a very short
distance from many others, in an area - that of the former military
bakery - of public property, which the neighborhood had been asking for
some time to be used for public purposes and which instead was sold off
to the private individual on duty for the profit of a few to the
detriment of the community.
Even in this massacre, the jungle of contracts and subcontracts emerges:
it emerges that on that morning at least three different companies were
working above and below the collapsed beam, that even four of the dead
workers were employees of a company, Maifredi SPA of Brescia, but
"loaned" on secondment to the company Go Costruzioni of Villongo Bergamo.
In this chain of contracts and subcontracts, can compliance with safety
regulations be guaranteed? First of all, who should control this, since,
for example, the public bodies responsible for such controls do not have
sufficient staff? For years we have had to deal with cuts and hiring
freezes that have affected the entire health sector and also the
workplace prevention sector, which is currently operating with 50% less
staff (from 5000 in 2008 to 2500 now), with interventions often based on
exclusively documentary checks that make the verification of safety in
the workplace a mere bureaucratic act.
But even the legislation introduced in the nineties, although not
completely satisfactory, has gradually changed, progressively losing
effectiveness: the ability of workers to protect themselves, introduced
by law 626/94 with the figure of the RLS (Workers' Representative for
Safety) has been annulled over time, bridling this figure more and more
and limiting its prerogatives, law after law.
Companies should provide training/information courses on the work risks
identified in the D.V.R., they should draw up the DUVRI (interference
risk document) with all the companies that operate to identify
interference between the various workers of the contracts and describe
how they should be managed. Since it is a "dynamic" document, every time
a new company is added it should be updated, but in reality this often
does not happen. Companies simply give paper information that workers
must sign, sometimes without even understanding it, given that they
often do not speak Italian, despite the fact that there is an obligation
for workers to understand what is written. But you know, courses for
companies cost money!
The concern was not so much to enforce the law by punishing with fines
and other things the companies that did not respect it, but the path was
chosen to reward with funding those companies that behaved well,
introducing the credit license issued simply by self-certification. With
decree 103 of July 2024, the obligation of advance notice for safety
checks was introduced: an inspection announced to make sure everything
is in order.
The responsibility of the worker was introduced, eliminating that of the
employer, leading to the belief that many of the massacres and accidents
are caused by human error.
And in the chain of contracts and subcontracts the client always comes
out clean and free of any responsibility, as in the case of Esselunga
and the deaths at work in via Mariti.
A clear change of direction is needed to reduce accidents at work: break
the chain of contracts, reduce workloads and pace, fight to change all
the detrimental aspects of the current legislation on workplace safety,
re-establish the independence of the RLS, force the hiring of personnel
in the supervisory bodies.
And for the massacre at the Esselunga construction site in via Mariti,
after a year of exhausting coexistence with the eco-monster of death,
the neighborhood is asking for a total revision of the project and the
destination of the area as a public park dedicated to the victims of
work, in a neighborhood gripped by an increasingly suffocating
concreting that causes, among other things, ever greater environmental
risks, as we are seeing with the repeated floods.
Enough with useless works, our lives are worth more than your profits
Paola e Maurizio
https://umanitanova.org/al-sole-del-cantiere-strage-di-via-mariti-firenze-non-dimentica/
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