In order not to stop the future and govern it, we don't need a tax on robots, but the exact opposite, that is to encourage those who invest in technology, innovation and training, by reducing taxes on labour. The exact opposite of Salvini's recipe, who with this proposal wants to tax businesses, penalizing above all small and medium-sized ones, i.e. those which, thanks to technological investments, would take advantage of the technology necessary to be competitive, because the cost of labor per unit of product is higher the smaller the firm is.
Perhaps the secretary of the League does not know it, but in these years of crisis many of the trade union agreements that we have made to keep work in Italy, or bring it back – reshoring – have seen investments in technology as the main lever for relaunching work and the occupation.
The answer therefore is not to tax robots but to detax labor by immediately reducing the tax wedge which today in our country is 10 points higher than the European average.
I understand that given the data, the dismay that the debate on the migrant as an object of fear is winding down, gives rise to Salvini's need to find other symbols to sow fear and hoard hatred in the polls. But technology can be a great ally for the humanization of work and the return of many delocalized productions.
°° The author is the General Secretary of Fim-Cisl
44 years old, born in Conegliano Veneto (TV), he was elected General Secretary of Fim Cisl on 13 November 2014. Married to Silvia, he has a 6-year-old daughter, Emma. He joined Fim Cisl in 1994, after years of precarious jobs and economic studies. At the age of 24, between 1994 and 1997, in the Fim Cisl he founded the Metalworkers Network (NGM), with the idea that the union should return to being "a public place of the best aspirations of young people", supporting the idea that young activists must be representatives and "interceptors of people and needs" in the workplace. He was among the first to bring the trade union initiative on the net by launching NGM also on the internet, already in 1997. In those years, with the young people of the Fim, he obtained the reopening of the trade union training school at the Romitorio di Amelia (TR ). In the period between 1998 and 2001 he gained experience at Bolognina (Bologna) following companies in the sector; he then became Provincial Secretary. In 2001, he moved to Ancona, still as Provincial Secretary, and took care of the main mechanical companies in the area, including Fincantieri, Fiat-CNH and Caterpillar. In 2008 he moved to the National Secretariat, where he immediately dedicated himself to industrial democracy and participation by promoting the Industrial Relations Protocol of Finmeccanica and the Fim Cisl proposal on the participation of workers in strategic corporate management, presented on 23 October 2013 at Cnel . He followed the steel and aluminum sector and dealt with the most difficult disputes of recent years (Alcoa, Lucchini, Ilva, AST, Indesit Whirlpool ) caused by the crisis, criticizing the ruling class for its inability to address the issue of industrial policies. Author of numerous articles and books, he was the first trade unionist in Italy to address the issue of changes in industry with the advent of the Internet of Things, which he talks about in #Sindacatofuturo in Industry4.0 (Adapt Press editions,) In book "People and the Factory" (Guerini NEXT editions), the largest research on Fiat Chrysler workers in recent years in Italy, carried out by Fim Cisl in collaboration with the Milan and Turin Polytechnic, claims the role and results of the agreements signed by Fim Cisl in the Fiat group (today FCA). He is a staunch supporter of the need to move on in the union. This is his vision: “We need a trade union 2.0 that brings together the best values and technology and above all the relaunch of middle management training at all levels. Internationalize, de-bureaucratise, rejuvenate the union”. Allergic to rituals and trade unionism, strict on transparency and organizational management, he believes that in a globalized economy trade union action, in order to be successful, must necessarily acquire an international dimension. "The union - he always repeats - will either be international or it won't be"
