I’ll explain the (bogus) reasons for the general strike by CGIL and UIL

10 December 20212 years ago babelfish

Because Giuliano Cazzola disputes the general strike proclaimed by CGIL and UIL

The more time passes, the more the protagonists of the general strike (can we call it red-yellow?) And their supporters scramble to find plausible justifications.

As a first step, the national secretariats had to reschedule the agitation because they had forgotten the provisions of the law on the exercise of the right to strike in essential public services (a sort of primer that has been operational for about thirty years).

The Guarantee Commission had to intervene as if it had to call not the leaders of the great confederations (the same ones that those rules had wanted in better times than the current ones for the quality of the management groups), but of the basic unions looking for a place in the sun .

Evidently, after they had had the opportunity to demonstrate – albeit for valid reasons – the day before the elections in Rome, Landini and Bombardieri thought that for them the rules were suspended as they were deserving '' avengers '' of the social injustices imposed for decades. of neoliberalism (copyright Romano Prodi).

During the press conference the day after the general strike decision – I can be wrong – but I heard indecent statements ( absit iniuria verbis ) for managers who have so many responsibilities towards millions of workers and are very influential in the economy and in society .

Maurizio Landini, in order to demonstrate in his opinion the unfairness of the fiscal measures, gave the example of the benefit that a cashier and an employee (a '' rich man '', a class enemy?) Would have received with an income of 75 thousand and more euros. No mention of the contribution bonus proposal that would go to the cashier and not to the '' golden salary ''.

The fact that a reduction in the tax levy should concern – without prejudice to the principle of progressivity – those who – workers and retirees – take on the by far prevailing share of tax revenue does not even cross Landini's mind (God rest it!) . Taxpayers (see the publications of Social Security Itineraries) who declare annual earnings of 35 thousand euros upwards are only 13.22%, i.e. 5.5 million, less than 10% of the population, but pay 58.86% of the whole IRPEF.

Meanwhile, his “ snack companion '' Pierpaolo Bombardieri, in the same press conference, limited himself to inventing hot water, recalling that the strike is a constitutional right (but can its exercise be wrong or not?) And that on December 16, the two confederations will give voice to social unrest. And here the eschatological character of the declaration of abstention from work emerges. A sort of palingenesis of work, insulted and offended; as Landini himself said: '' We have gone from job protection to contempt for work ''. The contents that were on the tables of the confrontation dissolve in the fog to make room for all the problems that, according to the new De Regge brothers of Italian trade unionism, grip the present and the future of the country, without seeking a rational explanation for certain processes.

Let's take the case of the so-called precariat. The economy has restarted, but the recruitments – they say but this is not true – are only completed. But wasn't it precisely these temporary relationships that ceased to exist during the crisis and the unfortunate block of layoffs? It may also be that companies take advantage of it, but it is perhaps not understandable that even entrepreneurs take precautions in a situation of great uncertainty, as a possible consequence of a new health emergency that is not at all averted and the warnings of a great restart of inflation from costs?

But then these strategists consult the data? Do they know that companies complain about the lack of adequate manpower and that instead of firing they are unable to hire? That resignations travel to multiple levels of layoffs?

Ask the minister Andrea Orlando, who, after recovering from the astonishment at the strike declaration, can only confirm the following: Work – consists of Resignations (equal to 85.2%) while a more contained growth is recorded in Retirement (+ 2.0%) in Other cases (+ 12%) and in layoffs (+ 17.7%, equal to +17 thousand) ''.

Did they read the Corriere della Sera of 4 December (also reported by Claudio Negro of the Anna Kuliscioff Foundation) that over 206,000 employees in the Milan area have voluntarily resigned from their jobs in the last 18 months? It is, wrote the Corriere, citing the Milanese CGIL, mainly young people, with a good professional level and well integrated in the company, who are looking for work environments that are more open in terms of relationships, more capable of enhancing and rewarding skills.

And again, have '' ours '' realized that – according to Istat – a number of places equal to 1.8% of the total are available and growing? For them these problems do not exist, they are part of another story.

What need is there – Landini and Bombardieri seem to say – to deepen the current social complexity, when it is so gratifying to invent one made to measure, responding to the '' sacred canons '' of the class struggle? Luigi Sbarra of the CISL is a person aware of the facts, since he was present in discussions with the government; well, the leader of the confederation of via Po listed, in an interview with Il Foglio , the concrete results obtained, in his opinion, by the unions: 7 billion out of 8 in reduction of the income tax of workers and pensioners, 85% of which will go to incomes of less than 50 thousand euros; 1.5 billion for the deduction of workers with incomes of less than € 35m; 5.5 billion for the renewal of public contracts; 8 billion for healthcare; 850 million for non self-sufficiency; the enlargement of the tax area of pensioners to 8.5 thousand euros. Then, we add, the audience of those who will be able to make use of the social Ape has been extended and, after years of cuts and manipulations, the correct mechanism for automatic pension equalization is restored with 4.7 billion that will end up in the current accounts of pensioners. Yesterday then the government prepared the amendment on taxation which confirmed the commitments made on the personal income tax and increased – bringing them to over 3 billion – the resources against the expensive bills.

In conclusion and waiting to see how things will go, we just have to ask ourselves whether Landini and Bombardieri will accept the "thirty denarii" that the government is offering them. After all – absit iniuria verbis – they are a bit of Judas.

In the communiqué accusing the budget bill of inadequacy, evoking issues that had never been discussed in that context, "the effort and commitment of Premier Draghi and his executive" were appreciated. The day after, Landini continued in this joke, declaring: '' We found what happened in the discussion on the tax authorities to be serious. And that is, that even on one point the Prime Minister has been placed in a minority ''.

Almost as if they had proclaimed the strike to avenge the insult made to Mario Draghi, at the same moment in which they were trying, instead, to put him in great difficulty, in view of the next appointments.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/sciopero-cgil-uil/ on Fri, 10 Dec 2021 06:48:16 +0000.