WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE ITALY - news journal UPDATE - (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #18-25 - Third-class railway workers. Maintenance workers and FS contract renewal (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 "Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: habemus contractum!" With a solemnity

comparable to that of the coronation of the Vatican monarch, the
conclave of the confederal unions signed the hypothesis of renewal of
the national collective labor contract for railway activities. The
negotiating confrontation that led to the long-awaited white smoke
follows an increasingly precise and ritual liturgical ceremonial made of
apparent ruptures that were never declared, combative proclamations of
struggle eternally suspended in the air, abysmal and unbridgeable
distances that suddenly become negligible and recomposable, all while
nothing of what is actually discussed in secret rooms and away from
prying eyes leaks out and comes to the knowledge of those directly
involved, that is, those who not only will find themselves carrying out
their work activity on the basis of what has been established by others,
but who would have every interest, as well as the full right, to make
their voices heard and to participate actively and personally in this
process. The trade unions announced the agreement as follows: "The
renewal is the result of serious, continuous, united trade union work,
and of constructive dialogue with the counterparts who have been able to
grasp the importance of responses that can no longer be postponed (...)
The result achieved is therefore the result not only of trade union
determination, but also of serious dialogue with the counterparts, who
we want to recognize for having been able to share, to the full, the
responsibility of providing concrete responses to the sector". This
press release, in addition to being, also from a lexical point of view,
a paradigmatic example of concertative unionism, sanctions the
definitive transformation of the railway workers into simple paying
spectators of the event and reiterates, once again, the belief that not
only must the class struggle definitively disappear from the
ideological-practical horizon of the workers' movement, but that there
are no longer even opposing interests between "bosses" and workers, but
only different points of view that can and must be overcome with the
good will of all, in full harmony and without conflict.
With this spirit, for example, the workers' requests for a reduction in
working hours with the same salary have been scientifically ignored and
not even presented at the tables, requests that, in addition to
representing a priority need to improve the quality of life, have now
spread widely in many sectors, both public and private, both in Italy
and abroad, favoring a notable increase in productivity itself.
The press release from the trade unions continues: "This is a renewal
that brings important regulatory and salary advances, with concrete
repercussions on the quality of work and the protection of the rights of
workers in the sector". The important salary advances consist of a gross
increase of approximately 230 euros per month spread over three years,
well below not only real inflation, but also planned inflation.
Ultimately, as if form could transform substance and words replace
facts, what are actually slowdowns in the loss of purchasing power of
wages continue to be defined as increases.

The construction of the remuneration continues to depend on a whole
series of allowances linked to certain activities: nights, travel,
flexibility, moving rest periods, weekends worked, despite the fact that
workers had asked to emphasize the increase in the basic salary to the
detriment of the increase, which is also laughable, as shown by the
increase of 10 cents per night, of these allowances which very often are
nothing more than expedients to "incentivize" the performance of
services that the company should resort to only in the case of actual,
proven and occasional necessity. Also from the remuneration point of
view, a whole series of measures that deserve more in-depth reflection
are definitively cleared and passed off as "normal", since, also in this
case, they appear to be real gifts not only to the FS group, but also to
a whole series of "third party" companies; at the same time, these
measures tend to direct the purchase of certain goods by workers,
limiting their freedom as consumers, for the series: "I give you money
that is due to you, but you can only spend it in the ways indicated by me".

For the contractual holiday period of 18 months, a one-off sum of 1000
euros gross is paid, approximately 55 euros gross for each month from
January 1, 2024 to today: it is quite clear how much the savings are for
the company, how much the loss is for the workers and what is one of the
reasons for the continuous delays in the renewal of the contract.
English: The recovery of the 2024 production bonus is divided into one
part in money and the other in welfare services; in the same way,
instead of granting a further increase in wages, they opt to increase
supplementary healthcare and supplementary pensions, that is, they
choose not to distribute money directly to workers, leaving them to
dispose of it as they see fit, but to provide unwanted services by
directing large amounts of capital to strengthen private companies even
to the detriment of public ones, see supplementary healthcare, and
uncontrollable investment funds, with all that this entails, including
in terms of financing the war industry. A practice that of transforming
money into services and welfare which, started with meal vouchers and
gradually but incessantly extended to supplementary healthcare and
pensions, is extremely functional for companies that use it, as, in
addition to representing a tax relief, it allows them to form
shareholdings and partnerships with other service providers and to
produce "parasitic" wealth, that is, without producing real goods, to
the detriment of the purchasing power of wages. A trend that has been
progressively encouraged by the various financial bills that have
followed one another over the years, with the approval of unions that
have never opposed it, probably because they are interested in this
trend, which also involves a continuous destructuring of various public
services by taking away their funds, undermining their efficiency and
indicating their privatization as the only viable solution to make them
functional, aping the failed Thatcherian model with a forty-year delay,
or deluding themselves into chasing the American dream, or rather nightmare.
"The important regulatory advances", consisting in the respect and
increase of rest periods, in maintaining the number of rest periods on
weekends and in the fixed number on the sixth day, in the reduction of
maximum performance and in the increase of minimum daily rest, apply
exclusively to on-board personnel, drivers and train conductors, but not
to infrastructure maintenance workers. These workers continue to be
subjected to shifts that include eleven consecutive days of work, no
weekends off, nights starting on the day of rest, sixty hours
distributed over eight days without intermediate rest, double
consecutive nights, four nights in a week, the possibility for the
company to be able to move the shift with 48 hours' notice, etc.
Here we do not want to retrace the history linked to the events of the
maintenance workers, to their disastrous work and human situation and to
the struggles carried out starting from the agreement of January 10 and
the entry into force of the "punitive shifts", for which we refer to the
articles published here (UN 20/24, 30/24, 02/25). Instead, we believe it
is appropriate to reiterate that the contract renewal was signed by the
same trade unions that signed the unfortunate agreement and defended it
tooth and nail against all evidence and in spite of the will of the
majority of workers, and their members, who have been suffering the
consequences for more than a year, who are fighting to regain their
dignity and the possibility of having a private life that is currently
completely destroyed by a shift system that, in addition to being
physically and psychologically exhausting, also constituting a threat to
workers' safety, is absolutely inadequate for carrying out
infrastructure maintenance.
There is therefore no need to be too surprised that the condition of
maintenance workers is not improved in the slightest by this contract,
which is in direct continuity with January 10 in the marginalization of
a sector of fundamental strategic importance for the FS group as the
main collection point for most of the capital coming from the PNNR and
the main contracting body for a multitude of renewal sites.
The low visibility of the maintenance worker and the union strategy of
separating him from the rest of the railway workers, preferring sectoral
struggles to a general and solidarity protest, makes him a perfect
sacrificial victim to be sacrificed on the altar of concertation and the
interests of company and union leaders, very often more convergent than
it may appear. It is clear then why the struggle undertaken so far has
not produced appreciable results and how an acceleration and a leap in
quality in the strategies is necessary to counter the continuous
corporate aggression and the apathetic union inertia that contribute to
making the situation appear unchangeable, and push towards
disengagement, indifference and the search for personal shortcuts even
to the detriment of the rest of those who are in the same condition.
Added to all this is the recourse to the request for "alms to the boss"
who, happy to grant a favor and appear magnanimous, only tightens the
ropes that immobilize and make any future claim impossible.
Only by starting from the analysis of our individual condition, of the
gap between what we experience and what we think we are entitled to or
aspire to, will we be able to become aware that we are all in the same
situation, in the face of which the search for a personal loophole is
only a way of evading the problem and weakening the common front, of not
recognizing in those who are in the same position as us an ally who,
while fighting for themselves, simultaneously does so with and for us:
"The evil that a single man felt becomes a collective plague" (Camus).
Undertaking a collective struggle strategy starting from one's
individuality is the only possibility to be truly incisive, appear
credible and obtain appreciable results.
A large, compact and determined grassroots movement appears to be the
only antidote capable of defusing the authoritarian-paternalistic drift
of the unions and effectively counteracting the arrogance of the
"bosses", using strategies that put both sides in front of accomplished
and irreversible facts, without resorting to traditional methods that,
also strongly limited by the law on the regulation of strikes, the
security decree and the inadmissibility of class action, have proven
ineffective and have ended up weakening and weakening the struggle and
making us accept the state of affairs by convincing us of its
inevitability and unchangeability. This movement must be built and
supported not on the basis of theories and indications rained down from
above, but starting from the experience of daily revolt against every
abuse, from the habit of rebelling in every situation against what
appears unjust and unfounded, from the incessant claim of what we
consider indispensable, from constantly siding with those who suffer an
injustice, from not retreating in the face of threats and from not being
fooled by promises. It is up to each of us to engage in this battle,
without sparing ourselves and without leaving alone, and consequently
defenseless and vulnerable, those who fight and expose themselves: let's
not create martyrs, we don't need them, let's all build together a
compact wall to oppose those who want us slaves and surrendered. Let's
rebel!

alemannaro

https://umanitanova.org/ferrovieri-di-terza-classe-manutentori-e-rinnovo-contratto-fs/
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