The departure of a protagonist of today's trade union movement such as Marco Bentivogli it won't be painless, though at the moment only a widespread, deafening and incredible silence of relief seems to emerge from the CISL. Beyond the bad character that Bentivogli is accused of, this episode will produce some effect because it will affect the quality of unitary relations. What everyone considered Pierre Carniti's heir challenged the "conservative" trade union component on the contentsalbeit with mixed success, but with a clear vision of the objectives, on a unitary project based on the rules and pluralism of the organisations, on the assumption of responsibilities by the management groups and on the direct involvement of all workers.
With resignation of Bentivogli, the prospect of competitive union unity is losing an important leader. For Maurizio Landini it could be an opportunity unrepeatable to consolidate his figure and his role as majority shareholder of the Italian trade union. His working-class experience and that of the confederation of trade unions have certainly not altered the maximalist culture, of which Bruno Trentin's successor at the helm of Fiom, Claudio Sabattini, was the undisputed bearer, of whom Landini can be considered, if not the heir, certainly a pupil. But Landini has also demonstrated a good ability to adapt, it has recovered ground in the face of serious defeats such as those of the 2010 referendum in the Fiat plants, where a line-up from the Fifties (the late Sergio Marchionne with Fim, Uilm and the independent union Fismic) put in the minority among the workers, Fiom, revolutionizing contractual structures and contents in the name of the defense of labour. It is no coincidence that the contractual platform that the metalworkers of Fim, Fiom and Uilm presented jointly for the renewal of the contract follows traditional contents and leaves some innovative aspects of the previous contract in the shade, which also started with separate platforms.
However, the context, also due to the effect of the pandemic, has changed profoundly. Above all Carlo Bonomi's Confindustria, which in many respects recalls Marchionne, has taken a clearer and more determined line on contractual arrangements. If words are followed by deeds, there will no longer be a contract for each product category (metal and steel, chemical and pharmaceutical, textiles and so on) but a single contract for the entire manufacturing sector. The implications are very clear and would produce, in a general framework (minimum contracts and common legislation) a net shift of true bargaining to company or decentralized level where the company is considered by the majority of employees as a common good in which different interests coexist and the conflict to distribute the wealth produced is experienced in physiological but not antagonistic terms.
In this direction a robust incentive like the total tax relief of decentralized contracting it would favor company agreements that promote the efficiency, productivity and profitability of businesses. Otherwise the recovery, if and when it occurs, will only offer workers a subordinate role and a future in which low professionalism, low wages and, ultimately, the marginalization of Italian industry and the loss of the appointment with the fourth industrial revolution will prevail. Decentralized welfare it also makes it possible to guarantee social-health and welfare protections that the State is no longer able to provide. Furthermore, if the union had the political will, there is space to build participatory models capable of capturing the spirit of Article 46 of the Constitution.
The same enormous difficulty that has been recorded for some time in finding the professional profiles required by companies requires innovative skills and the abandonment of the traditional training model aimed more at assisting trainers than at the market. The management of Active Labor Policies it should no longer be reduced to a game of incentives or entrusted exclusively to employment agencies. In the bilateral trade union-enterprise system, the training and job placement systems need to be rebuilt to make the labor market more fluid and efficient: a function that is exercised horizontally and which would attribute a decisive role to the social partners for employment growth.
Moreover, in recent years the culture of participation and the need for a non-traditional approach of the trade union have found robust intellectual support in the elaborations, to name a few, of Pietro Ichino (it would be worth reading his latest book, "The intelligence of work") and in the intense planning activity of Maurizio Sacconi, as well as in the work of a small but significant number of trade union leaders starting with Bentivogli himself.
If, as everything suggests, Confindustria from now on will not be a paper tiger, they are predictable difficult negotiations for contract renewals: an appetizer was seen, before the election of Bonomi, with the renewal of food specialists which actually caused the vertical rupture of the entrepreneurial front and a (Pyrrhic?) success of the traditional unitary union. If the workers' organizations defend the contractual model in force to the bitter end, the negotiations could last a long time and have uncertain and, in some respects, unpredictable results. This will be an important test for Landini's CGIL who, if he can adapt to the new reality, will consolidate his leadership of the Italian trade union movement. If he essentially maintains a defensive line limiting himself to the request for an extension of layoffs and the legal prohibition of layoffs, without valuing work, responsibility and merit as productive factors, he will risk isolation and a heavy defeat. Marco Bentivogli has elegantly removed the disturbance, but the problems remain.
°°°°°Marco Bentivogli was subjected to new death threats on Tuesday 23 June: an envelope was found in his Roman home with 3 38-caliber pistol cartridges and two 9-caliber cartridges with a message of threats in memory of the 10 years of the Fiat agreement in Pomigliano. The terrorists' flyer reads: “We will celebrate the Pomigliano agreement together. Anywhere in Rome or Ancona, resignation is not enough”. Unspeakable. All sympathy to Marco
