In his candidacy acceptance speech Enrico Letta outlined a program to rebuild the PD from scratch (as he himself declared) by designing a very extensive perimeter to keep the fighting party together with the government one and with the ambition of leading an alliance, as he repeated to journalists the following day, to win the political elections of 2023. Letta tried to identify the contents of a modern left, but the term "left" itself has always had a plural nature and, setting aside the ominous and long parenthesis of real communism, it can be declined in a very different way as experience teaches of two Labor leaders in Tony Blair and Jeremy Corbyn. It will therefore be the concrete acts that allow for a judgment on the real intentions of the new secretary of the PD and on what he will actually be able to achieve in a situation in which, despite appearances, it will not be easy for him to have his hands completely free while having a considerable potential to help shape the future of a country in crisis, bewildered and divided but temporarily living a phase of truce and emergency unity in the fight against the pandemic under the leadership of Mario Draghi.
Let's face it, it is difficult to see Enrico Letta in the guise of an inveterate maximalist and for this reason the question of what will be the obstacles he will encounter and how he will be able to overcome them in its commitment to rebuild a political force of the left reformist in content. Ernesto Auci, in a recent article published on FIRSTonline, pointed to a politically sensitive issue on the left, explicitly referred to by Letta, such as that of involve workers in the company's results. The greatest difficulties on this vast subject have been encountered on employee share ownership which has always met with diffidence in the trade union world and at the same time, to be honest, has never thrilled, with rare exceptions, the business world.
In recent years, however, one has established itself, at least in medium-large companies supplementary contract which, together with forms of corporate welfare, obtained excellent results variable salary results linked to the result, determined annually depending on the case through parameters such as the quality and quantity of production, turnover, operating margin or profit. From a political-cultural point of view, the turning point was epochal because it unequivocally set aside the antagonistic conception of the class struggle and accepted the idea of capitalism not as an enemy to be overthrown but more pragmatically as a sheep to grow and then shear. If we want to underline another element that can create embarrassments, but which is entirely consequent to the turning point, we can underline that the company has been accepted as a place of conflict but where strong common interests between labor and capital. It follows that the competition between firms from which the market thrives is also indirectly but concretely a competition between the workers of the different firms.
This situation is destined to worsen when, having overcome the most acute phase of the pandemic, the objective of accelerating the recovery will be set. Logica would like us to start from the different corporate realities. What will the union do?, in the first place Landini's CGIL which has never made a secret of favoring national bargaining? It is not easy to answer the question without also knowing the real intentions of the companies which often prefer to make their own choices rather than follow the guidelines of the associations. If it is reasonable to predict that the renewals of national contracts due to expire will be signed, the effective role in terms of wages attributed to company negotiations will be determined by the degree of willingness of companies to shift the barycentre of bargaining to this level. If a confrontation really opens up, it will be important the orientation of political forces traditionally close to the union.
For Enrico Letta it will be decisive to maintain full independence of judgment and avoid the repetition of the drive belt phenomenon no longer, as in the past far from the party to the union, but from the union to the party as has recently happened. After all, checks on delicate issues between political forces and trade unions will certainly not be lacking in the coming months. Not so much on the blocking of layoffs because the affected workers will in any case be accompanied by strong protections destined to last, as on the realization of the pact between the Government and the public employment unions when Renato Brunetta, who has granted a considerable credit facility, will go to collect the agreed commitments.
