16-12-2016

The unions appear deaf to the Government’s call

The unions appear deaf to the Government’s call

Rome, 16 December 2016 – The call by the Government to take responsibility made to the parties to the AlmavivA Contact dispute has been received with contempt by the Trade Unions, which, several hours after the appeal by the Deputy Minister Mr. Bellanova, are once again actively and dishearteningly resorting to a distortion of reality, altering their own and other people’s positions.

Today’s announcement by the unions seems to contain an attempt to mask as real (and “shameful”) non-existent claims attributed, by them, to the Company, while at the same time omitting to report that the only proposal actually aired by the Unions at yesterday’s meeting was the request for the implementation of yet further social shock absorbers, which, moreover, was also ambiguously presented in the form of a gradual and voluntary CIGS for all the production sites.

At the meeting held on 15 December, AlmavivA Contact re-iterated how the implementation of the longstanding social shock absorber schemes alone – which have already proved a failure – is an end in itself and is totally inadequate and misleading, without any effective accompanying structural measures capable of ensuring the Company’s financial balance, safeguarding employment and ensuring stable recovery solutions.

Moreover – and despite the distorted account contained in the unions’ announcement – the proposal advanced a while ago by AlmavivA Contact, for an alternative process to the reorganization currently under way, has not been re-iterated, because of the decision to keep it out of the discussion, as notified to the Company on 6 December last, because of the Unions’ absolute opposition.

After the prolonged, substantial disregard of the crisis, and the fact that it was spiraling out of control, after the refusal to adhere to the agreements that had been formally signed, attitudes that we observed already during the meeting at the Ministry, after months of evasiveness and faced with a systematic process of distortion of reality, we must now ask ourselves how credible is the unions’ touted claim that they wish to negotiate a solution?

If protecting jobs and workers continues to remain a meaningless rhetorical ruse, accompanied by short-sighted calls for a handling of the crisis based solely on shock absorber schemes – itself a shameful position – then it is becoming harder and harder to fall back on the sense of responsibility and contribution of ideas, which, in such a difficult situation, should be the main role of a trade union organization.