March 30, 1950 – March 30, 2020. The Fim-Cisl, the Italian Metalworkers Federation adhering to the Cisl union is 70 years old. Although the coronavirus emergency and the ongoing economic crisis do not make us want to celebrate, the union led by Marco Bentivogli remembers his story and the main battles carried out in recent years.
In a published contribution on the Fim-Cisl website, Bentivogli recalls the birth of the union:
“On 30 March 1950, in Milan, the representatives of Fillm (Federation of free metalworkers) and Silm (Union of metalworkers), the two metalworkers' unions born from the union split in 1948 and left by Fiom, met in a joint commission , until 1948, had been the unitary acronym of the metalworkers' union adhering to the CGIL, which was also, until then, the unitary acronym of the union promoted in June 1944 by the anti-fascist forces in the Pact of Rome. The first was the category that was part of the Libera CGIL, the Christian union component that in 1948 had left the unitary CGIL, now dominated by the social-communist component, because it was unwilling to use the union as a political weapon of opposition; the second was part of the Fil (Italian Labor Federation), with a dominant social democratic and republican background, which left the unitary CGIL a few months later for the same reasons. They unanimously decided to pool their forces to form a single union of metalworkers which took the name of Fim (Italian Federation of Metalworkers) whose birth was accompanied by that of its newspaper, the Ragguaglio. A month later, on April 30, in Rome, in the Adriano theater, the already born Cisl would be formally established, heir to the Lcgil and part of the Fil (the other party would have formed the Uil in the same year)”.
The context in which these events occurred was very harsh: we are at the beginning of the Cold War and the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union also had repercussions within the trade unions, influencing their choices and widening the gaps between an organization and the other. Bentivogli also speaks of the violence denounced in the report of the first FIM congress.
“We were tempted to keep silent about those events, in memory of our origins, but it seemed right to us, even a duty, not to remove them because they give a real sense of the conditions in which the Fim-Cisl was born. From our website we have made the documents available, creating an extraordinary repertoire. Fortunately, the world - at least the one in which we had the good fortune to be born and work - has changed a lot since then. In the union there has been the experimentation of a real, albeit problematic, unity and then - in the last twenty years - the return to division and to a "competitive confrontation", but no longer in a horizon of clash between political-ideological blocs , but within a more “secular” gap between different trade union models and practices”.
While admitting that even today the category is not free from clashes, the general secretary of the Fim-Cisl highlights the changes that have taken place over the long history of the union, while emphasizing the permanence of a fundamental pillar, namely the will to preserve the union from "political and agitational exploitation".
“The distinctive trait of the FIM, the value of freedom, has over time become almost a cult which has sometimes led it to be proudly irreverent in its autonomy, the fruit of different cultures, ideas, sensitivities and experiences. For this reason, the strongest thrusts for union renewal started from the Fim in the 60s, with the battle for autonomy and the incompatibility between union and political positions, and for the modernization of our country. All within an innovative contractual strategy, structured bargaining, the sum of the National Contract and the "company" or "supplementary" contract, which we do not want to call "second level" precisely because it is no less important than the first. An approach faithful to Giulio Pastore's indication that substantial democracy lives in the company thanks to bargaining and the participation of workers which makes it possible to influence and promote solidarity in the market”.
After the great battles waged over the years, Bentivogli talks about today and the three great challenges the world is facing: demographic, climatic and digital. Transformations that strongly affect the work and mission of trade unions.
Today these challenges must be met, leaving young people a space for authentic protagonism. It is not permissible to keep humanity on the bench, especially if it is a question of the new generations who instead have the right to plan the future they will have to inhabit.
Exiting crises in the same way as one entered them means remaining trapped in a vicious circle which, on the contrary, requires the courage to make authentic new beginnings. As Pope Francis said in his historic urbi et orbi blessing in a deserted St. Peter's Square, "the storm has made us discover ourselves vulnerable but it is teaching many to recognize each other as brothers". These difficult days show us the most hateful vices of people but also the virtues of many who roll up their sleeves so that "nothing will be like before" is a realistic landing place for a better world. The union organization must continue to interpret the message of its origins: together to promote justice. Today's workers must be able to feel that thanks to the union they are stronger and freer. Fim-Cisl was born 70 years ago to defend this spirit.
