Marco Bentivogli is not like Maurizio Landini. The general secretary of Fim-Cisl does not have the vaguely talkative oratorical emphasis of his neighbor from Fiom-Cgil. He is a sober and measured person, a bit like the people from the Marches (he is by adoption) of whom Guido Piovene in his "Viaggio in Italia" said that they were "the paradigm of the average, prudent, reserved, good and hard worker".
In just under an hour of reporting to the national congress of metalworkers of the CISL, Bentivogli overturned the approach of the Fiom and the CGIL (and perhaps also that of his CISL) and laid the foundations for a true and proper re-foundation of the union Italian. He did it, first of all, by clearing the field of the "politically correct" waste that has so far prevented the Union from being an active protagonist of the renewal of the country.
It's not true, said Bentivogli, articulating the words well, that ours is the age of fear. It's actually the era of opportunity! It is not true that globalization represents absolute evil. It is true instead that it is a highly positive process which has brought peoples together and which has already brought more than two billion men out of poverty. It is not true that technological innovation endangers our future. On the contrary, innovation represents the main lever of future development. Finally, it is not true that automation is bound to erase the at work. Instead, it serves to eliminate those strenuous and repetitive jobs that no one actually wants or should do anymore.
Bentivogli has not even succumbed to Piketty's sirens on growing inequalities and has not given space to the pauperistic theories of happy degrowth (on the contrary, he vigorously defended St. Francis from Grillo's sacrilegious attempt to seize them). Above all, he closed the door to the idea of basic income (income must be helped to create it in order to distribute it) and to any form of furry welfare. He was then succinct about Europe: it is our homeland! And, for the avoidance of doubt, he had Beethoven's Ode to Joy play in the hall.
It may seem like an exaggeration, but Bentivogli, without overdoing it and without threatening havoc, has put the union back down to earth. He has liquidated all the ideologies that weighed him down and conditioned him to restore centrality to man, to the person, to the worker. A Copernican revolution. He has also traced the path of this revolution.
The first need of the country, said Bentivogli, is to return to growth and to do so, Italy must invest. It must invest in businesses and public works, but also and above all in the formation of human capital, in education, and in research. Work, in all its forms, is the main driver of development and this is the reason why it is essential to create a system of industrial relations that is truly capable of involving all the protagonists of development. It is not a question of claiming new rights for the union but rather of assuming responsibilities with respect to the future of the company, as was done at Fiat in Pomigliano.
The old demand for workers' "autonomy" (from the boss, capitalism or the state) must give way to the demand for positive involvement in the management of the production process. Adriano Olivetti's project of the company as a “Community” returns to this participatory setting of the Fim, as a place where capital and labour, culture and technology merge to create wealth and well-being for all. In Olivetti there was no "beyond" (socialism) to which workers' action had to aim. Instead, there was an economic and productive process actually underway to be managed together and in everyone's interest. Olivetti's dream shattered against the wall of ideology (which, as Marx said, once it takes possession of the masses it becomes a material force) and against antagonism. Today we can and must resume that interrupted path.
Alongside an industrial relations system to be built, there is also a new bargaining system to be tested. The victory of Fiat (victory for Marchionne, but also for Fim and Uilm who believed in it) paved the way for a reversal of the traditional approach. The national contract remains, but as a framework. The concrete contents must be increasingly defined through articulated corporate and territorial negotiation. This is the way to link wages to productivity and to overcome the rigidities of the labor market.
Bentivogli did not speak of the economy in general and did not refer to Government policy, except to express his appreciation for Minister Calenda's commitment. It is not a question of an oversight but of a precise choice of field. The consultation, for better or for worse, is over. The path to take today is another. It is that of the "return to the factory": that is, of relocating the union to the heart of the production process. This is his mission or, if you prefer, his job. It is not a “diminutio”, far from it. Along this path, the union will be able to recover the role it deserves in Italian society. Bentivogli's Fim has set off. The hope is that all the other unions will soon follow. Congratulations.
Click here to read the full text of Marco Bentivogli's report at the Fim Cisl congress.
