A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #18-25 - Third-class railway workers. Maintenance workers and FS contract renewal (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

"Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: habemus contractum!" With a solemnity 
comparable to that of the coronation of the Vatican monarch, the 
conclave of the confederal unions signed the hypothesis of renewal of 
the national collective labor contract for railway activities. The 
negotiating confrontation that led to the long-awaited white smoke 
follows an increasingly precise and ritual liturgical ceremonial made of 
apparent ruptures that were never declared, combative proclamations of 
struggle eternally suspended in the air, abysmal and unbridgeable 
distances that suddenly become negligible and recomposable, all while 
nothing of what is actually discussed in secret rooms and away from 
prying eyes leaks out and comes to the knowledge of those directly 
involved, that is, those who not only will find themselves carrying out 
their work activity on the basis of what has been established by others, 
but who would have every interest, as well as the full right, to make 
their voices heard and to participate actively and personally in this 
process. The trade unions announced the agreement as follows: "The 
renewal is the result of serious, continuous, united trade union work, 
and of constructive dialogue with the counterparts who have been able to 
grasp the importance of responses that can no longer be postponed (...) 
The result achieved is therefore the result not only of trade union 
determination, but also of serious dialogue with the counterparts, who 
we want to recognize for having been able to share, to the full, the 
responsibility of providing concrete responses to the sector". This 
press release, in addition to being, also from a lexical point of view, 
a paradigmatic example of concertative unionism, sanctions the 
definitive transformation of the railway workers into simple paying 
spectators of the event and reiterates, once again, the belief that not 
only must the class struggle definitively disappear from the 
ideological-practical horizon of the workers' movement, but that there 
are no longer even opposing interests between "bosses" and workers, but 
only different points of view that can and must be overcome with the 
good will of all, in full harmony and without conflict.
With this spirit, for example, the workers' requests for a reduction in 
working hours with the same salary have been scientifically ignored and 
not even presented at the tables, requests that, in addition to 
representing a priority need to improve the quality of life, have now 
spread widely in many sectors, both public and private, both in Italy 
and abroad, favoring a notable increase in productivity itself.
The press release from the trade unions continues: "This is a renewal 
that brings important regulatory and salary advances, with concrete 
repercussions on the quality of work and the protection of the rights of 
workers in the sector". The important salary advances consist of a gross 
increase of approximately 230 euros per month spread over three years, 
well below not only real inflation, but also planned inflation. 
Ultimately, as if form could transform substance and words replace 
facts, what are actually slowdowns in the loss of purchasing power of 
wages continue to be defined as increases.

The construction of the remuneration continues to depend on a whole 
series of allowances linked to certain activities: nights, travel, 
flexibility, moving rest periods, weekends worked, despite the fact that 
workers had asked to emphasize the increase in the basic salary to the 
detriment of the increase, which is also laughable, as shown by the 
increase of 10 cents per night, of these allowances which very often are 
nothing more than expedients to "incentivize" the performance of 
services that the company should resort to only in the case of actual, 
proven and occasional necessity. Also from the remuneration point of 
view, a whole series of measures that deserve more in-depth reflection 
are definitively cleared and passed off as "normal", since, also in this 
case, they appear to be real gifts not only to the FS group, but also to 
a whole series of "third party" companies; at the same time, these 
measures tend to direct the purchase of certain goods by workers, 
limiting their freedom as consumers, for the series: "I give you money 
that is due to you, but you can only spend it in the ways indicated by me".

For the contractual holiday period of 18 months, a one-off sum of 1000 
euros gross is paid, approximately 55 euros gross for each month from 
January 1, 2024 to today: it is quite clear how much the savings are for 
the company, how much the loss is for the workers and what is one of the 
reasons for the continuous delays in the renewal of the contract.
English: The recovery of the 2024 production bonus is divided into one 
part in money and the other in welfare services; in the same way, 
instead of granting a further increase in wages, they opt to increase 
supplementary healthcare and supplementary pensions, that is, they 
choose not to distribute money directly to workers, leaving them to 
dispose of it as they see fit, but to provide unwanted services by 
directing large amounts of capital to strengthen private companies even 
to the detriment of public ones, see supplementary healthcare, and 
uncontrollable investment funds, with all that this entails, including 
in terms of financing the war industry. A practice that of transforming 
money into services and welfare which, started with meal vouchers and 
gradually but incessantly extended to supplementary healthcare and 
pensions, is extremely functional for companies that use it, as, in 
addition to representing a tax relief, it allows them to form 
shareholdings and partnerships with other service providers and to 
produce "parasitic" wealth, that is, without producing real goods, to 
the detriment of the purchasing power of wages. A trend that has been 
progressively encouraged by the various financial bills that have 
followed one another over the years, with the approval of unions that 
have never opposed it, probably because they are interested in this 
trend, which also involves a continuous destructuring of various public 
services by taking away their funds, undermining their efficiency and 
indicating their privatization as the only viable solution to make them 
functional, aping the failed Thatcherian model with a forty-year delay, 
or deluding themselves into chasing the American dream, or rather nightmare.
"The important regulatory advances", consisting in the respect and 
increase of rest periods, in maintaining the number of rest periods on 
weekends and in the fixed number on the sixth day, in the reduction of 
maximum performance and in the increase of minimum daily rest, apply 
exclusively to on-board personnel, drivers and train conductors, but not 
to infrastructure maintenance workers. These workers continue to be 
subjected to shifts that include eleven consecutive days of work, no 
weekends off, nights starting on the day of rest, sixty hours 
distributed over eight days without intermediate rest, double 
consecutive nights, four nights in a week, the possibility for the 
company to be able to move the shift with 48 hours' notice, etc.
Here we do not want to retrace the history linked to the events of the 
maintenance workers, to their disastrous work and human situation and to 
the struggles carried out starting from the agreement of January 10 and 
the entry into force of the "punitive shifts", for which we refer to the 
articles published here (UN 20/24, 30/24, 02/25). Instead, we believe it 
is appropriate to reiterate that the contract renewal was signed by the 
same trade unions that signed the unfortunate agreement and defended it 
tooth and nail against all evidence and in spite of the will of the 
majority of workers, and their members, who have been suffering the 
consequences for more than a year, who are fighting to regain their 
dignity and the possibility of having a private life that is currently 
completely destroyed by a shift system that, in addition to being 
physically and psychologically exhausting, also constituting a threat to 
workers' safety, is absolutely inadequate for carrying out 
infrastructure maintenance.
There is therefore no need to be too surprised that the condition of 
maintenance workers is not improved in the slightest by this contract, 
which is in direct continuity with January 10 in the marginalization of 
a sector of fundamental strategic importance for the FS group as the 
main collection point for most of the capital coming from the PNNR and 
the main contracting body for a multitude of renewal sites.
The low visibility of the maintenance worker and the union strategy of 
separating him from the rest of the railway workers, preferring sectoral 
struggles to a general and solidarity protest, makes him a perfect 
sacrificial victim to be sacrificed on the altar of concertation and the 
interests of company and union leaders, very often more convergent than 
it may appear. It is clear then why the struggle undertaken so far has 
not produced appreciable results and how an acceleration and a leap in 
quality in the strategies is necessary to counter the continuous 
corporate aggression and the apathetic union inertia that contribute to 
making the situation appear unchangeable, and push towards 
disengagement, indifference and the search for personal shortcuts even 
to the detriment of the rest of those who are in the same condition.
Added to all this is the recourse to the request for "alms to the boss" 
who, happy to grant a favor and appear magnanimous, only tightens the 
ropes that immobilize and make any future claim impossible.
Only by starting from the analysis of our individual condition, of the 
gap between what we experience and what we think we are entitled to or 
aspire to, will we be able to become aware that we are all in the same 
situation, in the face of which the search for a personal loophole is 
only a way of evading the problem and weakening the common front, of not 
recognizing in those who are in the same position as us an ally who, 
while fighting for themselves, simultaneously does so with and for us: 
"The evil that a single man felt becomes a collective plague" (Camus). 
Undertaking a collective struggle strategy starting from one's 
individuality is the only possibility to be truly incisive, appear 
credible and obtain appreciable results.
A large, compact and determined grassroots movement appears to be the 
only antidote capable of defusing the authoritarian-paternalistic drift 
of the unions and effectively counteracting the arrogance of the 
"bosses", using strategies that put both sides in front of accomplished 
and irreversible facts, without resorting to traditional methods that, 
also strongly limited by the law on the regulation of strikes, the 
security decree and the inadmissibility of class action, have proven 
ineffective and have ended up weakening and weakening the struggle and 
making us accept the state of affairs by convincing us of its 
inevitability and unchangeability. This movement must be built and 
supported not on the basis of theories and indications rained down from 
above, but starting from the experience of daily revolt against every 
abuse, from the habit of rebelling in every situation against what 
appears unjust and unfounded, from the incessant claim of what we 
consider indispensable, from constantly siding with those who suffer an 
injustice, from not retreating in the face of threats and from not being 
fooled by promises. It is up to each of us to engage in this battle, 
without sparing ourselves and without leaving alone, and consequently 
defenseless and vulnerable, those who fight and expose themselves: let's 
not create martyrs, we don't need them, let's all build together a 
compact wall to oppose those who want us slaves and surrendered. Let's 
rebel!

alemannaro

https://umanitanova.org/ferrovieri-di-terza-classe-manutentori-e-rinnovo-contratto-fs/
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