Because the union undergoes genetic mutation

Nationalization of wages, reduction of bargaining and construction of the union-party: there is the risk of a genetic mutation of the union. The deepening of Claudio Negro of the Anna Kuliscioff Foundation

The sequence between the rallies of the CGIL CISL UIL Secretaries in Milan, Bologna and Naples and Landini's intervention on the TV program "Che tempo che fa" leaves a mark that cannot go unnoticed regarding the quality of the confrontation that the Union intends to enter into business with the Government (the Employers' Associations seem to have lost the status of counterparty).

THE COMIZIO OF LANDINI FROM FAZIO

First of all, an observation on the character of the communication, which in politics is important because it underlies, without making it explicit directly, the strategic horizon in which the merit in question is placed: the tone, above all that of Landini in Fazio's transmission (a proposing : with all the rubbish he has dumped on the Government, perhaps a hint of Fazio's ouster could also have made an effort to do so, unless he considers it irrelevant compared to the problems of a far different historical importance he is dealing with); the tone, therefore, is convulsive and rallies, from the uncompromisingly bellicose tenor with which they contest the individual issues to the catastrophic-millennial scenario in which they are inserted. Landini's rally on TV was impressive: frenetic, excited oratory, as if he were afraid of being contradicted (I repeat: he could at least have thanked Fazio for having granted him this one man show).

On the merits, like his colleagues in the Piazza already, many clichés exhibited without restraint, mostly false. Some are already known, but the Union does not take note of the reality: we are the first country in Europe for precariousness, argue the belligerent protesters. But let's see the reality (Eurostat 2022 data, % fixed-term contracts)

EURO AREA	15.3
GERMANY	12.4
SPAIN	21.2
FRANCE	16.1
ITALY	16.4
HOLLAND	27.7
PORTUGAL	16.6
FINLAND	16.0
SWEDEN	14.8
SWISS	13.4

It should also be remembered that since the beginning of the year, fixed-term contracts have continued to decrease, while permanent contracts have never been so high. It would be enough to read the Istat and Eurostat reports: which is not in contradiction with nourishing visions of epochal strategic breadth!

THE COMMON PLACE OF THE YOUNG MAN WHO SNOBES THE 1000 €

Another cliché proudly exhibited by Landini is that of the young man who refuses work for €1,000 because it is exploitation. Let's imagine that this good young man has received a job offer from a company that applies the sacrosanct CCNL Multiservizi (signed by Cgil-Cisl and Uil), and that, having no experience or qualifications, he is offered employment at the first level: the salary will be €1182 per month gross; net of contributions (taking into account recent measures in this regard) they amount to €1,134; for 13 months 14,742 per year, which reset the IRPEF to be paid. If the good young man had accepted the 1,000 euros net of contributions, he would take home 960 net: 170 less than what Landini guaranteed him. It is evident that with such low contractual wages, a hypothesis of undeclared pay may seem attractive, because it is all clear (the price is paid in the long run, but this is often not present for a young person.

This observation leads to two considerations: first, it would be the case for the Union to acknowledge that wage levels are determined by the CCNL and not by malicious entities; if the national collective bargaining agreements are not renewed, the grumbling is not enough! Second: the narration of a country in which people do not make ends meet and are increasingly poor is slightly in contradiction with the satisfied affirmation that young people want good and rewarding jobs and refuse the 1,000 € (with which, however, in many areas of the country live without too many problems).
Another slogan that Landini badly stumbled upon was that union members would keep the country on its feet with their work. Now, the total number of members of CGIL CISL UIL is 11,500,000. Many, however almost half (5,500,000) are retired. Difficult to agree with Landini that those 6 million active employees (about a third of the total) are the ones who keep the country on its feet.

THE UNION AND ITALY RANTOLANTE

In conclusion : it is difficult to understand why the Union paints the image of a gasping country, afflicted by lack of work and poverty (when, on the other hand, companies are desperately looking for workers without finding them) and by impoverished wages, which have only grown against inflation, of 2.3% (France and Germany + 4%): if inflation (as Landini & Co maintain, even if this is debatable) is produced by super profits, it is not clear why the Union does not launch an intense campaign of national contract renewals (about 6 million workers still have expired collective bargaining agreements) and company bargaining. Firms generally have the resources and reasons to demand wage adjustments are all there. However, the Union does not choose the path of negotiation with companies, but a more tortuous and cumbersome path: companies are not asked to share profits with workers, but the State is asked to super-tax the profits and then redistribute them to the workers with the tax lever .

THE GENETIC MUTATION OF THE UNION

It is not an aesthetic question, nor an operation in which by changing the factors the result remains the same. It is a genetic mutation of the Union, which chooses to leave the capital-labour dialectic, in which the State has a mediating role and, where necessary, an incentive-disincentive role, to access a direct relationship with the Political Power, which is required to implement the claims and translate them into regulations. In this way, the way is blocked for concertation policies, which obviously must see the Government and the Social Partners in conditions of substantial equality and freedom of choice, and Politics is attributed the power to replace negotiation in the management of industrial relations. With the obvious consequence that these can change sign depending on the change in the government majority, and that therefore the union is increasingly involved in the dynamics of the politique politicienne .

What, moreover, the signs of which can already be glimpsed: in their rallies, the General Secretaries paint a global political offer, summarized in the "new development model" that includes everything, from the climate to peace, without saying anything that goes beyond the declamation. But Schlein already exists for certain things, there is no need for the union to form itself into a party. Unless…

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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/sindacato-mutazione-genetica/ on Fri, 26 May 2023 05:01:12 +0000.