To reconstruct the history of trade unions and work in Italy after the
Second World War, the testimonies and memories of the trade unionists
who led the organizations, but also those of workers and activists in
the factories, were important. ---- Following the interconfederal
agreements of 6 December 1945 and 23 May 1946, Italian industry
benefited from a trade union truce until 1947 and beyond; all industrial
wages are decided in a single agreement which provides for
differentiation by industrial sectors, by territorial areas, by worker
or white-collar qualification, depending on sex and age.
This does not prevent Fiom from 1945 to 1947 from implementing a series
of agreements with local industries organized outside the Industrial
Association. The reconstruction of this period is also due to the
memorials of Aldo Barozzi and Mario Barozzi (secretary of the Fiom
until 1948), of Arturo Galavotti (secretary of the Chamber of Labor),
partly collected by Luciano Casali. Through the memories of Modena
workers from the "Acciaierie Ferriere", the "Fonderie Riunite", the
"Ferrari" and the "Maserati", the memory of important factories was kept
alive. An important contribution is that of Eliseo Ferrari, secretary of
Fiom, the CGIL metalworkers' union, from 1948 to 1950 and from 1957 to
1973, who reconstructed a reality that has now disappeared, the
"Crocetta" industrial district of Modena, where there were the first
industries of the city. The choice to reconstruct the history of these
companies also served to delve deeper into the dramatic periods in the
history of the workers' movement. The factories were different both in
terms of working conditions and professionalism and trade union
relations, but both were symbols of the industrialization process
started at the beginning of the twentieth century. The "Ferriere" had
very difficult working conditions, continuous shifts and a very
dangerous environment for the health and safety of the workers. There
were many accidents at work, twelve of which were fatal. There were
worker figures whose names we don't even remember today, like the
foundry "tappers", they inserted the incandescent bar (billet) with
pliers into the rolling mill and in all the subsequent rolling steps. A
figure who has now disappeared but who was also the most conscious and
unionized in his requests and demands, the true basis of the Fiom league
of Modena. "Maserati" on the other hand had a work organization with
still professional characteristics, over the years the company struggles
produced important agreements and the first experiences of occupational
medicine in Modena.
The situation after 1948 was one of the most difficult in Modena, the
Cold War, the breakdown of trade union unity, opened a tragic period
which would end with the massacre at the Fonderie Riunite on 9 January
1950. Eliseo Ferrari illuminates various aspects of the reality of then
and the controversies that followed. The trade union disputes of the
period were the pretext, for the Modena employers, for lockouts and
dismissals which also took the form of attacks on the left; the
corporate sections of the various parties were present in various
companies. The different readings of the social reality within the union
and, above all, the divergences between political and union strategy,
lead to the resignation from the Fiom management of Mario Barozzi, who
considers it necessary to reach agreements that avoid lockouts, as had
happened at the Maserati in 1949, but which had met with strong
opposition from the workers concerned. The further lockout carried out
by the Orsi Group at the Fonderie Riunite, in December 1949, becomes the
decisive proof of a conflict that had been ongoing for months (in 1950
unemployment in the province reached 43,906 units and would grow until
1954 reaching 46,037). In this situation the Chamber of Labor takes a
firm position, also because the conditions posed by the ownership are a
real abolition of the union and the left in the factory, while the
factory is guarded by the police on the occasion of the scheduled
reopening on January 9th 1950. Eliseo Ferrari, in this regard, clarifies
the context of the situation and the choices made by the union
(different historical interpretations will still be compared in the
1990s). The decision not to occupy the factory, and instead to implement
a general strike with a march towards the Foundries, had taken into
account the reports warning of the company management's intention to
have the police intervene in the face of an occupation attempt. However,
the political decision not to give in remained central to the union's
choice, a decision that left little room for mediation. The tragic
conclusion of the day with the repression of the Scelbian police (six
dead, one hundred and forty injured, hundreds of arrests) nevertheless
determined a watershed in the attempt to reduce trade union and
constitutional rights, and the annulment of the role of the Internal
Commissions and Management Boards . However, the testimony recalls the
pre-eminence of the political character assumed by the dispute,
supported completely by Nenni and Togliatti, in the face of some doubts
expressed in the trade union field by Giovanni Roveda and Giuseppe Di
Vittorio. However, the reality of industrial relations in the province
also changed, and the post-war period was an opportunity for singular
experiences. As a consequence of collective dismissals of workers, due
to trade union retaliation or production crisis, production cooperatives
are formed, such as the Cooperativa Fonditori, promoted by those
expelled from Valdevit, the Carrozzeria Autodromo started by those
dismissed from the "Padane" workshops in Vismara, or the experience of
artisan villages.
The "Acciaierie Ferriere" and the "Maserati" were both included in the
"Management Councils" movement. The Management Councils, emerging from
the resistance experience, opposed by the majority of the employers,
constitute an important experience in terms of the political and
professional training of the workers, also thanks to the company and
provincial production conferences which represent opportunities for the
acquisition of skills necessary for diversification and productive
development. These structures which can be defined as one of the
characteristic elements of industrial unionism of the twentieth century,
in particular with regard to the skilled or technical worker component,
the one that best combined the dual role of the union, the contractual
one and the more radical one of changing the political balance and
social, leveraging the capacity for workers' control of production.
In the years 1951-1962 the Italian industry recorded a pace of
development incomparable with other historical phases; the level of
increase is among the highest in Europe. But wages remained almost
stationary between 1950-1954 and also between 1956-1961. From 1954 to
1955, the introduction of automatic manufacturing processes began in
large companies, reducing costs and allowing a growth in production;
from the early sixties, the first programmed machine tools were
introduced, which increased company productivity levels. These choices
cause phenomena of territorial imbalance which will be the main driver
of the inconveniences and demands of the subsequent struggles of the
years 1969-1971. The years from 1963 to 1968 saw the expansion of the
internal market and a relative social stability within which phenomena
such as the increase in unemployment developed, but also the development
of consumerism and a new way of negotiating salaries.
The negotiation begins with the questioning of individual piece rates,
through the proposal of production bonuses based on performance, a
proposal which, in the post-war Modena reality, was implemented by the
Internal Commissions. Disputes over production bonuses continued for
several years. The innovative work carried out in these disputes by
Ermete Casarini, head of Fiom in Modena, during exhausting company
negotiations until an agreement was reached is remembered. A phase that
ended with the national metalworking contract of 1963. This was an
innovative period in trade union disputes that ended with the national
contract of 1968-69, during the so-called "hot autumn". Many testimonies
recall the harsh reality of Taylorist factories, the increasingly
tighter and harder working times, the alienation, the rigidity of
Confindustria in negotiations. But also separate protocols, which served
for several Modena companies to distinguish themselves from the national
line of Confindustria, based on closure in negotiations. The Factory
Councils, organizational bodies within companies that arise from the
struggles of the Hot Autumn, are an original experience made its own by
the Italian trade union, which arises from the affirmation in the
workplace of new forms of participation and organization: assemblies of
department, homogeneous group delegates, line delegates; elected on a
blank ballot. The CdF is therefore a body that responds to all workers,
not just trade union members, with a strong contractual and
representation capacity in the various aspects of work organisation. The
Councils establish themselves both in the metalworking sector and in the
other productive sectors of the industry.
The conclusion of the historical path reconstructed in these memoirs
sees in 1969 the agreement between Ferrari and Fiat, with which a
profound change in relations begins. In 1984 the "Acciaierie Ferriere"
are definitively closed and subsequently demolished and the area
transformed into a residential. While "Maserati", the only luxury car
sector, after the phase in Citroén from 1968 to 1975, then in Gepi-De
Tomaso, entered the Fiat Group in 1993 and took part in globalized car
production.
The research work not only took care of the biographical memory but
tried to transcribe the cultural heritage of the workers, their capacity
for production, experimentation and effort in the Modena metalworking
industry. There are therefore various sources, both coming from
historiographical research and from testimonies, which can support the
hypothesis that the reality of Modena was one of the main areas of
conflict, experimentation and participation in the definition of the new
social and economic reality which asserted itself after the 1945.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lorenzo Bertucelli, A militant generation. The history and
memory of Modena trade unionists, Ediesse, Rome, 2004; Eliseo Ferrari,
Enzo Ferrari. Our races, Litosei, Bologna, 1991; Eliseo Ferrari,
Maserati Story, The relaunch of a myth, Edizioni il Fiorino, Modena,
2001; Anna Maria Pedretti (ed.), Work told. Acciaierie and Maserati: two
factories in Modena from the post-war period to today, Editrice
Socialmente, Bologna, 2013; Alessandro Portelli, Biography of a city,
history and story: Terni 1830-1985, Einaudi, Turin, 1985.
ilcantiere@autistici.org
https://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Second World War, the testimonies and memories of the trade unionists
who led the organizations, but also those of workers and activists in
the factories, were important. ---- Following the interconfederal
agreements of 6 December 1945 and 23 May 1946, Italian industry
benefited from a trade union truce until 1947 and beyond; all industrial
wages are decided in a single agreement which provides for
differentiation by industrial sectors, by territorial areas, by worker
or white-collar qualification, depending on sex and age.
This does not prevent Fiom from 1945 to 1947 from implementing a series
of agreements with local industries organized outside the Industrial
Association. The reconstruction of this period is also due to the
memorials of Aldo Barozzi and Mario Barozzi (secretary of the Fiom
until 1948), of Arturo Galavotti (secretary of the Chamber of Labor),
partly collected by Luciano Casali. Through the memories of Modena
workers from the "Acciaierie Ferriere", the "Fonderie Riunite", the
"Ferrari" and the "Maserati", the memory of important factories was kept
alive. An important contribution is that of Eliseo Ferrari, secretary of
Fiom, the CGIL metalworkers' union, from 1948 to 1950 and from 1957 to
1973, who reconstructed a reality that has now disappeared, the
"Crocetta" industrial district of Modena, where there were the first
industries of the city. The choice to reconstruct the history of these
companies also served to delve deeper into the dramatic periods in the
history of the workers' movement. The factories were different both in
terms of working conditions and professionalism and trade union
relations, but both were symbols of the industrialization process
started at the beginning of the twentieth century. The "Ferriere" had
very difficult working conditions, continuous shifts and a very
dangerous environment for the health and safety of the workers. There
were many accidents at work, twelve of which were fatal. There were
worker figures whose names we don't even remember today, like the
foundry "tappers", they inserted the incandescent bar (billet) with
pliers into the rolling mill and in all the subsequent rolling steps. A
figure who has now disappeared but who was also the most conscious and
unionized in his requests and demands, the true basis of the Fiom league
of Modena. "Maserati" on the other hand had a work organization with
still professional characteristics, over the years the company struggles
produced important agreements and the first experiences of occupational
medicine in Modena.
The situation after 1948 was one of the most difficult in Modena, the
Cold War, the breakdown of trade union unity, opened a tragic period
which would end with the massacre at the Fonderie Riunite on 9 January
1950. Eliseo Ferrari illuminates various aspects of the reality of then
and the controversies that followed. The trade union disputes of the
period were the pretext, for the Modena employers, for lockouts and
dismissals which also took the form of attacks on the left; the
corporate sections of the various parties were present in various
companies. The different readings of the social reality within the union
and, above all, the divergences between political and union strategy,
lead to the resignation from the Fiom management of Mario Barozzi, who
considers it necessary to reach agreements that avoid lockouts, as had
happened at the Maserati in 1949, but which had met with strong
opposition from the workers concerned. The further lockout carried out
by the Orsi Group at the Fonderie Riunite, in December 1949, becomes the
decisive proof of a conflict that had been ongoing for months (in 1950
unemployment in the province reached 43,906 units and would grow until
1954 reaching 46,037). In this situation the Chamber of Labor takes a
firm position, also because the conditions posed by the ownership are a
real abolition of the union and the left in the factory, while the
factory is guarded by the police on the occasion of the scheduled
reopening on January 9th 1950. Eliseo Ferrari, in this regard, clarifies
the context of the situation and the choices made by the union
(different historical interpretations will still be compared in the
1990s). The decision not to occupy the factory, and instead to implement
a general strike with a march towards the Foundries, had taken into
account the reports warning of the company management's intention to
have the police intervene in the face of an occupation attempt. However,
the political decision not to give in remained central to the union's
choice, a decision that left little room for mediation. The tragic
conclusion of the day with the repression of the Scelbian police (six
dead, one hundred and forty injured, hundreds of arrests) nevertheless
determined a watershed in the attempt to reduce trade union and
constitutional rights, and the annulment of the role of the Internal
Commissions and Management Boards . However, the testimony recalls the
pre-eminence of the political character assumed by the dispute,
supported completely by Nenni and Togliatti, in the face of some doubts
expressed in the trade union field by Giovanni Roveda and Giuseppe Di
Vittorio. However, the reality of industrial relations in the province
also changed, and the post-war period was an opportunity for singular
experiences. As a consequence of collective dismissals of workers, due
to trade union retaliation or production crisis, production cooperatives
are formed, such as the Cooperativa Fonditori, promoted by those
expelled from Valdevit, the Carrozzeria Autodromo started by those
dismissed from the "Padane" workshops in Vismara, or the experience of
artisan villages.
The "Acciaierie Ferriere" and the "Maserati" were both included in the
"Management Councils" movement. The Management Councils, emerging from
the resistance experience, opposed by the majority of the employers,
constitute an important experience in terms of the political and
professional training of the workers, also thanks to the company and
provincial production conferences which represent opportunities for the
acquisition of skills necessary for diversification and productive
development. These structures which can be defined as one of the
characteristic elements of industrial unionism of the twentieth century,
in particular with regard to the skilled or technical worker component,
the one that best combined the dual role of the union, the contractual
one and the more radical one of changing the political balance and
social, leveraging the capacity for workers' control of production.
In the years 1951-1962 the Italian industry recorded a pace of
development incomparable with other historical phases; the level of
increase is among the highest in Europe. But wages remained almost
stationary between 1950-1954 and also between 1956-1961. From 1954 to
1955, the introduction of automatic manufacturing processes began in
large companies, reducing costs and allowing a growth in production;
from the early sixties, the first programmed machine tools were
introduced, which increased company productivity levels. These choices
cause phenomena of territorial imbalance which will be the main driver
of the inconveniences and demands of the subsequent struggles of the
years 1969-1971. The years from 1963 to 1968 saw the expansion of the
internal market and a relative social stability within which phenomena
such as the increase in unemployment developed, but also the development
of consumerism and a new way of negotiating salaries.
The negotiation begins with the questioning of individual piece rates,
through the proposal of production bonuses based on performance, a
proposal which, in the post-war Modena reality, was implemented by the
Internal Commissions. Disputes over production bonuses continued for
several years. The innovative work carried out in these disputes by
Ermete Casarini, head of Fiom in Modena, during exhausting company
negotiations until an agreement was reached is remembered. A phase that
ended with the national metalworking contract of 1963. This was an
innovative period in trade union disputes that ended with the national
contract of 1968-69, during the so-called "hot autumn". Many testimonies
recall the harsh reality of Taylorist factories, the increasingly
tighter and harder working times, the alienation, the rigidity of
Confindustria in negotiations. But also separate protocols, which served
for several Modena companies to distinguish themselves from the national
line of Confindustria, based on closure in negotiations. The Factory
Councils, organizational bodies within companies that arise from the
struggles of the Hot Autumn, are an original experience made its own by
the Italian trade union, which arises from the affirmation in the
workplace of new forms of participation and organization: assemblies of
department, homogeneous group delegates, line delegates; elected on a
blank ballot. The CdF is therefore a body that responds to all workers,
not just trade union members, with a strong contractual and
representation capacity in the various aspects of work organisation. The
Councils establish themselves both in the metalworking sector and in the
other productive sectors of the industry.
The conclusion of the historical path reconstructed in these memoirs
sees in 1969 the agreement between Ferrari and Fiat, with which a
profound change in relations begins. In 1984 the "Acciaierie Ferriere"
are definitively closed and subsequently demolished and the area
transformed into a residential. While "Maserati", the only luxury car
sector, after the phase in Citroén from 1968 to 1975, then in Gepi-De
Tomaso, entered the Fiat Group in 1993 and took part in globalized car
production.
The research work not only took care of the biographical memory but
tried to transcribe the cultural heritage of the workers, their capacity
for production, experimentation and effort in the Modena metalworking
industry. There are therefore various sources, both coming from
historiographical research and from testimonies, which can support the
hypothesis that the reality of Modena was one of the main areas of
conflict, experimentation and participation in the definition of the new
social and economic reality which asserted itself after the 1945.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lorenzo Bertucelli, A militant generation. The history and
memory of Modena trade unionists, Ediesse, Rome, 2004; Eliseo Ferrari,
Enzo Ferrari. Our races, Litosei, Bologna, 1991; Eliseo Ferrari,
Maserati Story, The relaunch of a myth, Edizioni il Fiorino, Modena,
2001; Anna Maria Pedretti (ed.), Work told. Acciaierie and Maserati: two
factories in Modena from the post-war period to today, Editrice
Socialmente, Bologna, 2013; Alessandro Portelli, Biography of a city,
history and story: Terni 1830-1985, Einaudi, Turin, 1985.
ilcantiere@autistici.org
https://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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