A careful observer of the problems of work and collective bargaining, as Dario Di Vico has been pointing out for some time, the progressive "co-bassification" of industrial relations determined by a growing laceration of relations within the historical confederations and by a rapprochement of CGIL e Uil to the radical experience of the grassroots unionism. In fact, if we take into consideration the general strikes proclaimed in the last four years, during the budget session by Cgil and Uil, clearly emerges the growing contamination between two approaches to trade union initiatives - once different and adversarial now in accelerated conformity - that characterized the confederal/general unionism and the grassroots one that over the years has absorbed and distorted the traditional autonomous unionism that, over time, had qualified itself in a corporative key.
General strikes: symbolic protest or bargaining tools?
In this regard, according to Emilio Reyneri, sociologist at the Bicocca University of Milan, we should study more Cobas to better understand the motivations and the lines of intervention and the increasingly recurring strikes in sensitive sectors in direct contact with citizens (such as transport, schools and other community services). According to Reyneri, it is sufficient to read the platforms for calling for strikes that are all-encompassing and non-negotiable and that clearly highlight that "You don't strike to negotiate", because the claims they are so much generic making it practically impossible for the other parties to accept them. general strikes they have turned into a sort of large rain dance, with which the State/divinity is asked to resolve – motu proprio – the problems raised in the claims.
Wages and union distress: beyond the simple complaint
In recent times – after the criticisms on the side of theoccupation addressed to all governments in office for the last twenty years – it has become difficult (even for Maurizio Landini) quench your thirst on the precarious rampant among young people, ignoring the current trends towards an increase in permanent employment and a decrease in fixed-term employment, the new frontier of hardship has settled on salary levels deemed inadequate if compared to what happens in other countries. The problem is real, but it cannot be solved by reporting and passing the buck to the government. We need to identify the reasons and try to correct them. The Government and the Institutions can act as employers towards public employees in the various sectors (and it is doing so); it can adopt a fiscal policy that, by intervening on the wedge of the cost of labor, improves the net salary compared to the gross one (and has made the decontribution for the lowest incomes structural); it can put in place new supports for families (and in recent years we have seen bonuses of all types).
Work: A Changing Market, But Negotiation Lags Behind
In the field of employment, the gap of the so-called reserve army which weakened the bargaining power of unions and workers; now the crisis has largely shifted to supply; much remains to be done on the issues of mismatch, of professional adaptation to new production needs, to the action of employment centers and employment agencies in ensuring the meeting between supply and demand. But it is the primary duty of the social parties revisit the mechanisms of collective bargaining which remains the "factory" of the salary conditions (and not only) of work. During 2024 there was a significant push towards collective bargaining by category with wage increases. As another industrial relations expert wrote, Nunzia Penelope su The Work Diary of which she is deputy director: "But in an Italy distracted every day by many and mostly vain controversies, that basic task that is proper to the union, that is, bargaining, is not news. Not even if bargaining is the only true antidote to the curse of starvation wages and poor work.
Contractual successes: the case of banking and other sectors
In these months, outside the spotlight of mainstream communication, the trade union federations of Cgil, Cisl and Uil have always continued to do their contractual work. And they have done it very well (as well as jointly), so much so that – Penelope certified – there is now a long series of contracts renewed with success. A successful series inaugurated by the processes, who in the space of a few months have signed around twenty contracts in their vast sector, all with increases exceeding 200 euros.
Then there was theexploits of the banking, who obtained a whopping 435 euros: they did make at least a bit of news, both for the size of the sum and because the request was immediately supported by the main Italian banking group, Intesa Sanpaolo. And theAbi had no choice but to follow suit. The BCCs also moved along the same lines, having signed a renewal for the same amount for their 36 employees in recent days. “In recent weeks – and I repeat: almost ignored by the media – many other collective agreements have been renewed”. So much so that – Penelope recalls: “It is the OECD itself that recognises that things have been changing lately. Parisian analysts say that “thanks to the renewals of important collective agreements”, in the first three months of 2024 “there has been a boost to wages equal to 2,8% more than last year”. And the outlook is that growth will continue in the next two years: still below the European average, of course, but still above inflation, therefore with a slight recovery in purchasing power”.
Reforming bargaining: the real antidote to poor work
But you have to go and look for this news, because it is censored by the same unions that are the protagonists so as not to disturb the party order that claims to represent a poor and derelict Italy, even at the cost of secret the good work of those same ones sindacati who cry poverty to put into circulation only narrations that are able to unleash that “social revolt” that Maurizio Landini aspires to. If – as Penelope wrote – the only true antidote to the curse of starvation wages and poor work lies in bargaining, it would be appropriate for the social parties to question themselves on the limits of the current structure and how to improve it. This in a context in which the need for better wages is supported by the Governor of the Bank of Italy Fabio Panetta and indicated by Mario Draghi as a means of supporting the internal market as an alternative to possible export difficulties resulting from the protectionist policies announced by Trump.
But is the current bargaining structure, which is substantially based on the national category contract, sufficient to achieve the objective of greater wage growth? The ccnl has the merit of offering a minimum economic and regulatory treatment to an entire category, but for this very reason it ends up being sustainable for marginal companies and for a period of a suitable number of years in a context in which changes in economic and production conditions occur over shorter time periods. In the globalized economy, the cost of labor it is a factor of competitiveness which can be overcome through theincrease in productivity.
European Policies and Stagnant Wage Growth: What Solutions?
“European policies – he said Mario Draghi in one of his last speeches – tolerated low wage growth as a means of increasing external competitiveness, exacerbating the weak income-consumption cycle. If the EU continues – he added – with its average rate of growth in labor productivity since 2015, given our ageing societies, the economy in 25 years will be the same size as today. This means a future of stagnant tax revenues and fiscal surpluses to prevent debt-to-GDP ratios from rising.
However, we are faced with spending commitments that will not be reduced with GDP. The former Prime Minister then addressed the issue of work: "What we mean today by structural reforms has changed. Ten years ago, the term was mostly limited to increasing the flexibility of the labor market and compressing wages. Today, it means increasing productivity growth without replacing labor, but rather retraining people“. In confirmation of this analysis, it should be noted that the countries characterized by higher wages are the same ones that have accumulated greater increases in factor productivity over the years. But is the bargaining structure adequate to increase productivity not only to recover the accumulated delays, but also to put wages back at the center of a new economic policy? The tools have been there for years thanks to tax exemption of salary increases decentralized and aimed at improving productivity and quality of work; but to what extent are they used in a hierarchy of sources in which primacy belongs to national collective bargaining?
Inflation and wage revaluation: a question of balance
Finally, there is the problem of theinflation. By now it was considered a historical residue, until the matryoshka of crises, health, raw materials, energy supplies (largely connected to wars) did not determine a sudden surge in prices that was reflected in the purchasing power of wages negotiated in a different context. wage revaluation system with respect to inflation, it has been entrusted to the IPCA mechanism, from which the effects of products are excluded energetic imported, which have constituted and constitute, following geopolitical trends, the real point out of control of inflation. It is evident that during the years of validity of a national contract – in the given situation in the international context – inflationary peaks can occur that send previously negotiated economic treatments flying.
How to Improve Purchasing Power Through Negotiation
If this were the new reality, instead of adding another point to the platform of a general strike declared against unknown persons, wouldn't it be better to open a negotiation with the counterparts to develop a suitable instrument for a situation that has changed, the effects of which are also negative for workers? It is not a question of reinstating another sliding scale that functions as an inflation fixator. When in 1993 they were defined in Ciampi protocol the functions of the bargaining levels, entrusting the national contract the task of the wage protection compared to cost of life, a mid-term review was also established to re-examine the performance of the guaranteed coverage in relation to the inflation trend. Obviously, the unions preferred to do without this appointment - which extended the duration of the contracts and allowed companies to keep some margins when the new contract came into force in case adjustments were necessary at the time of the review - in order to be able to give workers higher wages as soon as possible.
