A-Infos (en) Italy, FDCA, Cantiere #25 - History and memory of work and the union: 1945-1985 (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

To reconstruct the history of trade unions and work in Italy after the 
Second World War, the testimonies and memories of the trade unionists 
who directed the organizations, but also those of workers and activists 
in the factories, were important. ---- Following the interconfederal 
agreements of 6 December 1945 and 23 May 1946, Italian industry 
benefited from a trade union truce until 1947 and beyond; all industrial 
wages are decided in a single agreement which provides for 
differentiation by industrial sectors, by territorial areas, by worker 
or white-collar qualification, depending on sex and age.
This does not prevent Fiom from 1945 to 1947 from implementing a series 
of agreements with local industries organized outside the Industrial 
Association. The reconstruction of this period is also due to the 
memorials of Aldo Barozzi and Mario Barozzi (secretary of the Fiom until 
1948), of Arturo Galavotti (secretary of the Chamber of Labor), partly 
collected by Luciano Casali. Through the memories of Modena workers from 
the "Acciaierie Ferriere", the "Fonderie Riunite", the "Ferrari" and the 
"Maserati", the memory of important factories was kept alive. An 
important contribution is that of Eliseo Ferrari, secretary of Fiom, the 
CGIL metalworkers' union, from 1948 to 1950 and from 1957 to 1973, who 
reconstructed a reality that has now disappeared, the "Crocetta" 
industrial district of Modena, where there were the first industries of 
the city. The choice to reconstruct the history of these companies also 
served to delve deeper into the dramatic periods in the history of the 
workers' movement. The factories were different both in terms of working 
conditions and professionalism and trade union relations, but both were 
symbols of the industrialization process started at the beginning of the 
twentieth century. The "Ferriere" had very difficult working conditions, 
continuous shifts and a very dangerous environment for the health and 
safety of the workers. There were many accidents at work, twelve of 
which were fatal. There were worker figures whose names we don't even 
remember today, like the foundry "tappers", they inserted the 
incandescent bar (bilet) with pliers into the rolling mill and in all 
the subsequent rolling steps. A figure who has now disappeared but who 
was also the most conscious and unionized in his requests and demands, 
the true basis of the Fiom league of Modena. "Maserati" on the other 
hand had a work organization with still professional characteristics, 
over the years the company struggles produced important agreements and 
the first experiences of occupational medicine in Modena.
The situation after 1948 was one of the most difficult in Modena, the 
Cold War, the breakdown of trade union unity, opened a tragic period 
which would end with the massacre at the Fonderie Riunite on 9 January 
1950. Eliseo Ferrari illuminates various aspects of the reality of then 
and the controversies that followed. The trade union disputes of the 
period were the pretext, for the Modena employers, for lockouts and 
dismissals which also took the form of attacks on the left; the 
corporate sections of the various parties were present in various 
companies. The different readings of the social reality within the union 
and, above all, the divergences between political and union strategy, 
lead to the resignation from the Fiom management of Mario Barozzi, who 
considers it necessary to reach agreements that avoid lockouts, as had 
happened at the Maserati in 1949, but which had met with strong 
opposition from the workers concerned. The further lockout carried out 
by the Orsi Group at the Fonderie Riunite, in December 1949, becomes the 
decisive proof of a clash that had been ongoing for months (in 1950 
unemployment in the province reached 43,906 units and would grow until 
1954 reaching 46,037). In this situation the Chamber of Labor takes a 
firm position, also because the conditions posed by the ownership are a 
real abolition of the union and the left in the factory, while the 
factory is guarded by the police on the occasion of the scheduled 
reopening on January 9th 1950. Eliseo Ferrari, in this regard, clarifies 
the context of the situation and the choices made by the union 
(different historical interpretations will still be compared in the 
1990s). The decision not to occupy the factory, and instead to implement 
a general strike with a procession towards the Foundries, had taken into 
account the reports that warned of the company management's intention to 
have the police intervene in the face of an occupation attempt. However, 
the political decision not to give in remained central to the union's 
choice, a decision that left little room for mediation. The tragic 
conclusion of the day with the repression of the Scelbian police (six 
dead, one hundred and forty injured, hundreds of arrests) nevertheless 
determined a watershed in the attempt to reduce trade union and 
constitutional rights, and the annulment of the role of the Internal 
Commissions and Management Boards . However, the testimony recalls the 
pre-eminence of the political character assumed by the dispute, 
supported completely by Nenni and Togliatti, in the face of some doubts 
expressed in the trade union field by Giovanni Roveda and Giuseppe Di 
Vittorio. However, the reality of industrial relations in the province 
also changed, and the post-war period was an opportunity for singular 
experiences. As a consequence of collective dismissals of workers, due 
to trade union retaliation or production crisis, production cooperatives 
are formed, such as the Cooperativa Fonditori, promoted by those 
expelled from Valdevit, the Carrozzeria Autodromo started by those 
dismissed from the "Padane" workshops in Vismara, or the experience of 
artisan villages.
The "Acciaierie Ferriere" and the "Maserati" were both included in the 
"Management Councils" movement. The Management Councils, emerging from 
the resistance experience, opposed by the majority of the employers, 
constitute an important experience in terms of the political and 
professional training of the workers, also thanks to the company and 
provincial production conferences which represent opportunities for the 
acquisition of skills necessary for diversification and productive 
development. These structures which can be defined as one of the 
characteristic elements of industrial unionism of the twentieth century, 
in particular with regard to the skilled or technical worker component, 
the one that best combined the dual role of the union, the contractual 
one and the more radical one of changing the political balance and 
social, leveraging the capacity for workers' control of production.
In the years 1951-1962 the Italian industry recorded a pace of 
development incomparable with other historical phases; the level of 
increase is among the highest in Europe. But wages remained almost 
stationary between 1950-1954 and also between 1956-1961. From 1954 to 
1955, the introduction of automatic manufacturing processes began in 
large companies, reducing costs and allowing a growth in production. 
From the early sixties, the first programmed machine tools were 
introduced, which increased company productivity levels. These choices 
cause phenomena of territorial imbalance which will be the main driver 
of the inconveniences and demands of the subsequent struggles of the 
years 1969-1971. The years from 1963 to 1968 saw the expansion of the 
internal market and a relative social stability within which phenomena 
such as the increase in unemployment developed, but also the development 
of consumerism and a new way of negotiating salaries.
The negotiation begins with the questioning of individual piece rates, 
through the proposal of production bonuses based on performance, a 
proposal which, in the post-war Modena reality, was implemented by the 
Internal Commissions. Disputes over production bonuses continued for 
several years. The innovative work carried out in these disputes by 
Ermete Casarini, head of Fiom in Modena, during exhausting company 
negotiations until an agreement was reached is remembered. A phase that 
ended with the national metalworking contract of 1963. It was an 
innovative period in trade union disputes that ended with the national 
contract of 1968-69, during the so-called "hot autumn". Many testimonies 
recall the harsh reality of Taylorist factories, the increasingly 
tighter and harder working times, the alienation, the rigidity of 
Confindustria in negotiations. But also separate protocols, which served 
for several Modena companies to distinguish themselves from the national 
line of Confindustria, based on closure in negotiations. The Factory 
Councils, organizational bodies within companies that arise from the 
struggles of the Hot Autumn, are an original experience made its own by 
the Italian trade union, which arises from the affirmation in the 
workplace of new forms of participation and organization: assemblies of 
department, homogeneous group delegates, line delegates; elected on a 
blank ballot. The CdF is therefore a body that responds to all workers, 
not just trade union members, with a strong contractual and 
representation capacity in the various aspects of work organisation. The 
Councils establish themselves both in the metalworking sector and in the 
other productive sectors of the industry.

The conclusion of the historical journey reconstructed in these memoirs 
sees the agreement between Ferrari and Fiat in 1969, which marked the 
beginning of a profound mutation in trade union relations and in the 
identity of the company; in 1982 the Fonderie Riunite were closed after 
several events, in 1984 the "Acciaierie Ferriere" were definitively 
closed and later demolished and the area transformed into a residential 
centre. While "Maserati", the only luxury car sector, after the phase in 
Citroén from 1968 to 1975, then in Gepi-De Tomaso, entered the Fiat 
Group in 1993 and took part in globalized car production.
  The research work not only took care of the biographical memory but 
tried to transcribe the cultural heritage of the workers, their capacity 
for production, experimentation and effort in the Modena metalworking 
industry. There are therefore various sources, both from 
historiographical research and from testimonies, which can support the 
hypothesis that the Modena reality was one of the main areas of 
conflict, experimentation, participation in the definition of the new 
social and economic reality that emerged after the 1945.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lorenzo Bertucelli, A militant generation. The history and 
memory of Modena trade unionists, Ediesse, Rome, 2004; Eliseo Ferrari, 
Enzo Ferrari. Our races, Litosei, Bologna, 1991; Eliseo Ferrari, 
Maserati Story, The relaunch of a myth, Edizioni il Fiorino, Modena, 
2001; Anna Maria Pedretti (ed.), Work told. Acciaierie and Maserati: two 
factories in Modena from the post-war period to today, Editrice 
Socialmente, Bologna, 2013; Alessandro Portelli, Biography of a city, 
history and story: Terni 1830-1985, Einaudi, Turin, 1985.

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