The first time at the Leopolda by Marco Bentivogli, general secretary of the metalworkers of the Cisl and trade unionist with a high rate of innovation, was one of the main novelties of the Florentine meeting. Bentivogli summed up in a slogan, which summarizes a vision of the modern trade union, his intervention which was also clearly expressed on the forthcoming referendum: "Independent but not indifferent". The union that Bentivogli spoke of is the union that breaks with any collateralism without renouncing its trade union political vocation, its ability to become an educator.
One can therefore maintain one's independence - this is the sense of the reasoning developed during the Florentine kermesse - even if one takes sides in favor of the constitutional reform, because there is no need to have a party card in one's pocket, not even that of the Democratic Party , to exercise one's judgment freely and without fear of the Italian label manufacturer. Provided that it is done, as in the case of the Fim, by going into the merits of the issues that have direct repercussions on work, not out of "conformism or modernist craving".
This is the case with title V and the changes made in 2001, which "blocked the economy and innovation". But also of equal bicameralism, which has made the process of the laws "cumbersome and not very linear". Words that in a crescendo of applause reach a roar with Leopolda standing to applaud. A clear stance yet far from Manichaeism: "Yes and No have equal dignity, but an intelligent trade union cannot put the different consequences on the same level".
"We don't join the acolyte of politicians and trade unionists always on top with the glycemic peak of rancor, like those who tell us that more needed to be done with every agreement in and outside the assembly and usually they are the ones who do nothing". A stance that derives from an equally clear idea of the relationship that the union must cultivate with politics: “We need a union that does the union only and well, jealous of its autonomy from companies, parties and institutions. The transmission belts, the political collateralisms belong to an old, now sterile union, which is the opposite of the generative union”, Bentivogli made it clear, warming up the audience, which applauded him several times.
These are the same concepts that recur in the book ("Have we ruined Italy? Why can't we do without the union" published by Castelvecchi) that the Fim leader has recently given to the press, an outspoken reflection on the present and future of the union. On the future, above all, Bentivogli has clear ideas, and in front of the Leopolda audience he presented them in a concise but detailed way: there is a union that serves the country before itself, and a union that does not serve, which acts as a ballast for the community.
The first in these years of crisis has been able to keep together "emergency and perspective, always telling the truth to the workers. It is a trade union that does not fear the future, that is within the challenge of change, that knows that on the eve of the fourth industrial revolution it is necessary to think ahead to build a 4.0 ecosystem”. The second preferred to withdraw into protest, he took the path of "abstract anti-ism" and gradually but irresistibly let himself be attracted by the magnet of populism: "It's something that makes us feel angry, that's why we decided to oppose populist looting of what was the working-class conscience”.
A commitment that is both political and moral. Because, Bentivogli insisted, "the union has an irreducible ethical root, it is one of the most beautiful forms of collective solidarity" and, as Pope Francis said the day after the Third meeting with popular movements in which the Fim leader also participated with a delegation of Cisl metalworkers, "represents a daily commitment against fear".
Bentivogli did not mention it, but many thought certainly went to the Fiat case, to the long trail of controversies, rancor, violence (the Fim has paid the price more than the other trade unions with offices attacked, assaults, managers under escort), following the separate agreement of Pomigliano in 2010. The contrast that then emerged between two antithetical conceptions of the union marked the entire period of the crisis. And we're not out yet.
“There are those who in these years of terrible crisis – Bentivogli articulated – have tried in every way to keep the workers together; but there are also those who preferred to go around looking for applause, skilfully avoiding the most difficult crises, unleashing all their ideological paraphernalia to get some applause: in this way, however, they deceived the workers by systematically hiding the truth from them".
The Government would also do well to take this distinction into account - said Bentivogli without hiding his annoyance at certain past outings by Prime Minister Renzi - given that "generalizing helps the union which one can and must do without", the one that hides behind ideology, of course, but also that which "confuses the law with the abuse of rights", which uses "sickness certificates instead of a strike". An intolerable practice especially in the eyes of those who "represent the workers of Ilva, who on New Year's Eve were at blast furnace 5, the largest in Europe, and were 98% present".
Bentivogli also lambasted the Democratic Party, saying, "too many of your leaders do not understand the importance of a strong and renewed trade union and know trade unionists only from TV, only a new and rooted trade union can give form and positive content to anger and despair, central element for those who must have a profound vision of the country and its future”.
There is still a lot of solidarity in work and in the vital worlds of the country which in this phase must be put together and which authorizes hope, to believe in a country which on this road must show its "more beautiful and fraternal" face to those who have suffered the damage caused by the earthquake, to those who have lost or cannot find work and to migrants, to be welcomed as brothers and sisters so that no one in our country feels like a foreigner".
