A summary of this article appeared in “Il Giorno” on Sunday 26 July on page 22. Pensioners and confederations: the Italian anomaly. Because a consensual separation between Unions of Pensioners and Confederations would be useful. Out of 16 million pensioners, more than 7 million have joined the union by signing a proxy according to which INPS makes a deduction. There is a discrepancy between the numbers released by INPS and those from union sources, but the representativeness of CGIL, CISL and UIL, which together have almost 5 million registered members, is beyond question.
The proxies, once signed, are for an indefinite period. For the unions, this is a strong point because revocations can only take place through a cancellation sent to the social security institution. But it is also an element of weakness: it is no coincidence that the unions fear the annual renewal of proxies which could be decided by the INPS. After all, in the past it was the CGIL itself that requested it.
The weight of pensioners' organizations within their own confederations is enormous. More than half of the members of the CGIL, around 50% in the CISL and about a third in the UIL. In an aging country the phenomenon is natural. But in the Italian trade union there is a macroscopic anomaly: the recognition of a pensioner of a status equal to that of an active registered worker cannot be found in other trade unions. In general, the rules of the European and American trade unions attribute the decision-making power only to active union members. Retirees participate in the life of the union, but are not present, as an organized structure in the bodies of the confederal union.
The Italian anomaly produces significant effects. In the first place, it attributes to pensioners a conditioning power in determining, in addition to political choices, also the most important offices of the confederations. It is true that CGIL, CISL and UIL have taken measures to remedy the situation by establishing that the presence of representatives of pensioners in the governing bodies cannot exceed one third of the total, but often, especially in the territories, active workers end up being in the minority. Do senior management groups influence federal policies? Most retiree leadership teams have been trained in the workplace since the Hot Autumn. Their trade union culture is highly conflictual, sometimes imbued with residues of antagonism which hardly sees common interests coexist in the company between workers and owners.
For these reasons they are objectively defenders of the "continuity of tradition" which risks turning into a protest for its own sake. On the other hand, the financially strong pensioners' unions have their own widespread organization and are particularly active in the network of tax and social security services which constitute the main source of their membership. It is also true that the success of confederal demonstrations, especially those of a national nature, is often determined by their massive presence.
But does this organizational political arrangement respond to the interests of retirees as a social group? Today the interests of the world of work are no longer uniform and the class struggle has been replaced by an articulated conflict that seeks pragmatic solutions. The most important result for retirees was achieved with the reform of the distant 1968, when the children helped their retired parents.
Today the opposite is the case but in the meantime the growth of social spending has brought about new rules which prefigure starvation pensions for the next generations. Some improvements can be obtained with supplementary pensions, contractual matter of the categories of assets, while important results could be achieved by strengthening the social policies of Regions and Municipalities. Is it not unrealistic to design a model of autonomous (and unitary?) organization of retired workers, not subordinate but allied to the confederations and categories of active workers, which develops its enormous potential for representation and organization vis-à-vis the institutions as an expression of specific interests of a social group.
This separation would increase the role and responsibility of retirees and at the same time would also favor a strengthening of the bargaining union, starting with corporate and territorial bargaining, which is the only credible response to getting out of a long and difficult economic and political crisis.
