The CGIL (Italian General Confederation of Labour) has called a general strike for December 12th against the Budget. The announcement came yesterday at the delegates' meeting in Florence.
Landini: "This is an unfair and mistaken move."
“We believe that this is an unfair, wrong maneuver and we want to change it,” he said Maurizio Landini, general secretary of the CGIL, speaking on the sidelines of the delegates' meeting. "The fundamental emergency right now is wages: there is a need to increase wages, this Budget does not do that,” he added.
"We demand additional resources," Landini continued, "so that the renewal of public sector contracts is a serious matter, not a handout. We demand a tax exemption for all public and private contracts, with no income caps for all male and female workers. We demand that fiscal drag returned: Workers, employees, and pensioners have paid 25 billion more in taxes over the last 3 years simply because deductions and tax brackets were not automatically revalued in the face of rising prices and inflation.
To change "an unfair budget law", he stated at the Nelson Mandela forum in Florence, the union has "put forward a proposal, a solidarity contribution that concerns 1% of citizens Italians. We're talking about 500 wealthy people: we're saying that, for those with wealth exceeding €2 million, a 1% tax contribution would be enough to raise €26 billion to invest in healthcare, hiring, education, and raising salaries for everyone."
Then, the leader of the CGIL also mentioned the issue of pensions and health and workplace safety, "we are calling for investment in public healthcare because we are faced with 6 million people who cannot obtain treatment, with never-ending waiting lists, and we are in a dire situation for healthcare workers, with nurses and doctors forced to work extremely demanding shifts." "It is also necessary," he concluded, "to invest in schools and education, and at the same time, to invest in social services, starting with the law on long-term care."
Meloni's Irony
After the strike was announced, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni published an ironic comment on X “New general strike by the CGIL against the Government announced by general secretary Landini. What day of the week does December 12th fall on?”, wrote the prime minister, alluding to the fact that strikes are always called on Fridays as an excuse to bring forward the weekend.
Soon it arrived Landini's reply"There have been a lot of comments lately, some even asking if we can change the day. I'd like to respond very calmly: if they want, they can even cancel the strike; they can change the plan themselves."
