The reformist testament of Marco Biagi (assassinated 22 years ago)
“It came instinctively to write down these lines. See if they can be of use to you." This short message addressed to the director of Il Sole 24 Ore accompanied the latest editorial by Marco Biagi (assassinated on 19 March 2002). Yet another lucid contribution to the ideas and analysis of society
Our labor law has become a matter of strong appeal also for public opinion. Only some time ago, no one would have ever imagined that the reforms of the labor market would receive a huge amount of media attention. And now that, after the Government's latest choices on the experimental reform of art. 18, we are on the eve of a social clash complete with a general strike, industrial relations will also enter a state of suffering.
In reality the art. 18 has little or nothing to do with it. We cannot pretend not to see that true dissent is not so much (or not only) related to this norm, which is so emblematic in our system. After all, in the recent agreement on European Works Councils, transposing a long-awaited directive, the social partners agreed to no longer refer to the art. 28 of the Workers' Statute (anti-union behaviour). A no less characteristic rule, for many years a true flag of the trade union left. The real battleground is more generally that concerning a project to reform the entire subject, on the one hand, and the strenuous defense of the current system, on the other.
Naturally it is more than legitimate to disagree on modernization techniques or in any case to have reservations in relation to the Government's choices, some certainly more persuasive than others. On the other hand, we cannot understand the radical opposition to considering the current structure of labor law practically unchangeable, objecting at every turn to the violation of fundamental rights or attacks on democracy.
It is legitimate to consider every element of modernization or progress as a danger for the socially weaker classes. It has always been like this in history and in this case too it repeats itself. The entire bill 848 constitutes the transition from the old to the new and one might think that after art. 18 there would have been other parts of that text that would have been vetoed by the unions. The "Work Statute" itself means reviewing the protection of the various forms of work and not just extending the current ones to those who do not yet have them. Every process of modernization occurs with difficulty, even with social tensions, in short, also paying high prices for conflict.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/marco-biagi-testamento-riformista/ on Tue, 19 Mar 2024 09:10:24 +0000.