Marchigiano born in Recanati on 19 July 1920, after having obtained his high school diploma in Bologna in 1939, the following year, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he was called up and participated as a reserve officer in the campaigns of Albania and Greece.
Repatriated, he was sent to Sardinia, where he remained until 8 September 1943. His political training took place on the island, which saw him join the ranks of the Action Party (1946) on the impulse of the friendships of the circle of anti-fascist militants, first of all that of Emilio and Joyce Lussu.
In June 1946 he graduated in literature in Bologna. Militant of the Action Party, after its dissolution joined the PSI, where he held the position of secretary of the Federation of Ancona and was elected to the Central Committee. At the end of 1950 he switched to union work and was elected national secretary of the Federation of Construction Workers (FILLEA) of the CGIL where he remained until 1955, when he was nominated deputy secretary of the CGIL (with Giuseppe Di Vittorio general secretary and Fernando Santi assistant secretary), remaining in the top confederation until 1960.
Then Brodolini decided to switch to party activity, was then elected deputy secretary of the PSI in 1963, a position he held until 1966 (in the meantime, in 1953 he had been elected for the first time to the Chamber of Deputies in the district of Ancona-Pesaro-Macerata-Ascoli Piceno, then confirmed for three legislatures, until 1968, when he was elected to the Senate).
In December 1968, he was nominated Minister of Labor and Social Security in the second government of Mariano Rumor (1968-1969). In this capacity he promoted a vast legislative activity in social security and trade union matters: the overcoming of wage cages, the restructuring of the social security system (Law No. 153/1969). Brodolini's most important intervention was the presentation, on June 24, 1969, of a bill, the drafting of which he had put his hand to, in collaboration with Gino Giugni, from the beginning of his ministerial mandate, entitled "Rules for the protection of the freedom and dignity of workers, trade union freedom and trade union activity in the workplace”, draft of the law known as Statute of workers' rights. With this design Brodolini intended, as stated in the text: «to contribute in the first place to creating a climate of respect for freedom and human dignity in the workplace, bringing the entrepreneur's exercise of managerial and disciplinary powers back to their rightful place and that is in a strict finalization to the carrying out of the productive activities».
Also in terms of personal style Brodolini gave a completely new image to his ministry spending New Year's Eve 1968-1969 in the tent raised in via Veneto in Rome by the workers of the Roman Apollon factory, fighting for the defense of their jobs, and bringing the solidarity of the ministry to the laborers of Avola following the death of two workers killed by the police during a demonstration.
He died of cancer on July 11, 1969 in a clinic in Zurich. Brodolini was considered a lazy person (his friends had renamed him James Brod at the time of the first films about agent 007). The awareness of the imminent end transformed him into another person, committed to leaving something important behind him and therefore prompted him to accelerate as far as possible the realization of his political program and the approval of the Statute of workers' rights . By now he participated at the end of his strength (he died a few days later) in the Congress of the CGIL in Livorno where he gave a speech that seemed to everyone a will. A sentence of his has become part of the collective memory of the country: ''Those who choose their friends in life also choose their enemies – he said – and I have chosen you as my dearest friends''.
In recognition of Brodolini's efforts in the last phase of his life, the President of the Republic Giuseppe Saragat awarded him the Gold Medal for Civil Valor, with the following motivation:
«A very high example of tenacious political commitment, he devoted, with tireless and passionate work, all his energy to the achievement of a higher social justice, giving first as a trade unionist, subsequently as a parliamentarian and, finally, as minister for labor and social security, remarkable contribution to the solution of serious and complex problems concerning the world of work. Struck by inexorable evil and while aware of the imminence of his end, he offered proof of supreme civic virtue, continuing to carry out, right up to the end, with firm determination and unchanged fervor, the functions of his ministerial office, in a supreme reaffirmation of the ideals who had constantly inspired his action»
In memory of Giacomo Brodolini a Foundation was established, of which his right-hand man Enzo Bartocci was the animator for a long time and Piero Boni was president, after his exit from the CGIL.
