The unions proclaimed for Wednesday March 25 a strike of eight hours of the Lombard metalworkers. The decision, explains the general secretary of the Fim-Cisl, Marco Bentivogli, "was taken because Lombardy should be considered as a region where more restrictive measures are needed" than those launched with the latest government decree, which according to the workers' representatives has brought too many activities into those considered indispensable and therefore to be left open. But then Bentivogli himself specified that the strike and the methods of carrying out the protest are still being discussed.
Secondo Frances King David, secretary of Fiom, "it is impossible to think of defeating the virus if non-essential production activities are not closed", therefore strike initiatives are already underway throughout the national territory. The metalworkers' strike, continues King David, will continue until the government takes “the necessary measures to protect the health and safety of industrial workers. The unions do not have the power to close factories: it is the government that must intervene. Fiom is making agreements with companies for the stoppages and reductions of production activities with the use of layoffs. We ask the government to put workers' health at the center".
On opposite positions the president of Confindustria, Vincenzo Boccia: “This decree raises a question that from the economic emergency makes us enter the war economy – said the number one of the industrialists speaking on the Circo Massimo broadcast on Radio Capital – 70% of the Italian productive fabric will close. If the GDP is 1800 billion a year it means that we produce 150 billion a month: if we close 70% of the activities it means that we lose 100 billion every 30 days”.
As for the possibility of a general strike, "I honestly can't figure out what about", continues Boccia, underlining that the closures envisaged by the latest government decree "are even more restrictive" than what the executive itself had communicated to the unions last Saturday .
The protest also extends to bank employees. The banking unions Fabi, First Cisl, Fisac Cgil, Uilca and Unisin they are preparing the mobilization of the category, starting tomorrow, and threatening a strike.
The general secretaries of the banking acronyms, in a letter sent this morning to the ABI, to Federcasse, to all the banks, and, for information, to the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, denounce how "employees of the sector, among whom are registered many cases of Coronavirus positivity do not operate in safe conditions”, without masks, gloves and disinfectants.
The textile and chemical unions are also on a war footing
