What will really change with the agreement between Amazon and the unions
That is why it must not only be Amazon, but also the unions, to change. Mario Sassi's in-depth analysis taken from his blog
A good trade union agreement should be hailed for what it is. Without unnecessary exaggeration and without assigning to the agreement reached anything other than what has been agreed. The bumpy path that accompanied the times of maturation, the starting positions, the different cultures that clashed should quickly give way to the mutual will expressed in the text, opening a new phase.
To make the agreement between Amazon and the trade unions inevitable, also through the mediation of the Ministry of Labor, several factors contributed. First of all, the economic and employment weight that the multinational is having in our country. The importance of relations with the social and political context for your concrete business in a reality like ours certainly could not be underestimated by the top management. And this, regardless of the symbolic load that Amazon evokes, from the almost non-existent real union dynamics within its perimeter or from the excited tones used on the aprons.
Establishing normal industrial relations with the three confederal unions with the aim of trying to avoid exploitation of the business, work organization and personnel management is a positive fact. It is no coincidence that the company, with the growth of its size, and in anticipation of this path, has given itself a managerial structure also in human resources capable of accompanying its growth and social dialogue.
Amazon knows very well that it must pay for a prejudicial aversion caused by its origin, its size and pervasiveness in numerous sectors, its acting on traditional terrains in a new way where, as Jovanotti sang, "the rules do not exist, there are only exceptions" and that their standardization in a single country are very complex. The future, however, is not expected but is made by going. Stopping it is impossible. And those who pursue the field of business often, instead of identifying and facing their own limits, limit themselves to asking for the intervention of an elusive "referee" from whom they demand an impartiality that is easy to say but difficult to achieve.
All this seasoned with the disorientation and distrust that technology and the future cause on that part of the country's most technophobic political and social culture that brings together gig economy, logistics, algorithm, unemployment, precariousness, evoking the risks of a hypothetical big brother who organizes our both working and consumer lives.
Here, to be clear, the trade union agreement signed by Amazon speaks of a completely different matter. Fly low. How it should be. It tackles the issues of possible confrontation between the parties, fixes and limits the perimeter to what the logistic CCNL already substantially provides.
The importance lies in considering it a good point of balance which, while not upsetting anything, recognizes the role of trade union representation, opens up to discussion on issues relating to employment and growth, safety and professional development of employees. Fortunately, the instrumental accusations of personnel management and fantasies such as "negotiating the algorithm" remained far from the negotiating table.
The contribution of Conftrasporto was useful, an association to which Amazon adheres as it had already been in Friuli where a pilot agreement between the company and local representatives had already been reached a long time ago, without particular emphasis.
If this agreement opens a new phase for the company, it should also be for confederal trade unionism. For this reason, the tones with which the confederal union greeted the signing of the agreement with Amazon signed in front of the Minister of Labor Orlando, filling it with improbable contents, seemed frankly exaggerated. It is an important agreement with which the company demonstrates its willingness to build a channel of communication and comparison with the confederal trade unions. This is the real news.
Like all trade union agreements it will be the interpretation and careful management of what is written to mark its possible grounding. Honestly, I expected more the will to turn the page also from the union. Amazon is a multinational company that hires and would like to continue to do so. It is one of the main employers in our country. It does not relocate and has no particular tensions with its collaborators.
In the logistics sector, other problems afflict the quality of employment relationships. Not a word on this. And that worries me. There is the usual rigmarole against multinationals leaving our country that has nothing to do with the complex negotiation that was concluded both for the will of the union but also for the availability of Amazon.
Not a word about those who do not respect laws and contracts in the logistics sector. Not a word on the exploitation of the Cobas and what points will the revitalization of the trade union initiative in the sector on the most important issues manifest. Not, for example, that logistics, for what it will represent in the coming years, would deserve a qualitative leap both in approach and in national bargaining. However, I agree that the signing an agreement with the leading company is certainly not to be considered a point of arrival.
However, I fear that the unnecessarily bellicose declarations that accompanied him rather than opening a new phase of greater involvement and a proactive role of the union risk opening a season of further misunderstandings. Amazon hires, obeys the laws, and enforces contracts. It can and will have to do more downstream of its perimeter and has undertaken the commitment to inform and confront workers' representatives on the real problems that may arise in its warehouses .
The mistake is to think that this or other steps forward, even on a cultural level, given the situation in other countries, only the company should make. It would lead nowhere. As well as pointing out, as Marco Bonini of the CGIL pointed out, that "after a long time the role of politics returns, which in the fullest of its powers acts as a subject of mediation and guidance in the clash between the Social Partners". It is not so. If the change is not reciprocal, these agreements are destined to remain exercises of style. For this it will be interesting to follow the next steps.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/amazon-sindacati-conseguenze/ on Fri, 24 Sep 2021 04:17:21 +0000.