INTERVENTION/ Deindustrialization and alternatives to current industrial structures seems to have become the only thought in various round tables, conferences, seminars and editorials.
Paradoxically it happens, then, that when the news of a factory susceptible to closure and consequent elimination of the workforce is heard, solidarity is demonstrated by making a request for intervention on the part of one institution or another.
And then, theoretical strategies are proposed combined with new economies presumably capable of replacing the current industrial realities which, for decades, have been claimed to have produced only tragedies.
Who knows if these doctors of industrial disasters have ever taken a tour inside those large factories which, instead, for decades have ensured employment, growth and cultural development of the territory.
Two examples above all?
Here they are, Bagnoli (Na – ex Ilva) and Termini Imerese (Pa – ex Fiat), where after decades the deindustrialisation that has taken place still today sees hectares and hectares of territory to be reclaimed, entire neighborhoods now abandoned, the sad reality of workers , in particular ex Fiat, who have been living on income support for years.
There will certainly be those who will applaud the eventual withdrawal of Edison’s LNG depot, just as there were losers and winners (who knows if even jobs and the local economy!) at the time for that of British Gas.
And, to follow, there will be those who applaud the closure of the Enel Federico II power plant, just as in their time there were those who were elated by the closure of the Brindisi north thermoelectric power plant.
Then? No doubt: the petrochemical industry as well as the pharmaceutical industry should be dismantled as a roundabout way to compensate the territory for all the damage suffered, as is claimed by many.
Of course, it will be interesting to know what the functional strategy would be to safeguard what will be the thousands and thousands of former employees of related industries and contracting around those industries, once closed.
Perhaps the so-called happy degrowth has already identified the ideal reality for this city to take root in?
We appreciated and also asked to speed up the many investment proposals in shipbuilding, logistics, renewable sources and related supply chains, which we define as additional investments and not alternatives to the current industrial structures.
Just as it seems absolutely essential to us to invest in the port and in retroports, considering, however, as we have always maintained, that ports without industry do not develop much of an economy and employment.
Be careful and don’t joke with words or slogans, because the history of Brindisi should have taught us that when there is no longer work, the real one, the one you can touch with your hands, the alternatives become very different.
Adriano Olivetti, an enlightened entrepreneur, demonstrated that factories and culture can go hand in hand and how the responsibility of doing business in a community can also truly encourage the knowledge economy and social cohesion.
Poets, painters, writers, economists, were involved in his great ability to do business, linking it to the economic and cultural growth of the territory, promoting not only the development of the factory beyond national borders but also equipping libraries, cultural centers and promoting urban regeneration .
In short, contrary to common thought that risks making proselytes in our area, the factory for Olivetti-thought was a real tool for the growth of the territory, to improve everyone’s living conditions, thanks also to tailor-made welfare , services for employees and the city and, indeed, culture.
We were among the first, as CISL, to appreciate Brindisi’s candidacy Capital Italian of Culture 2027, for its evident peculiarities, its landscape and monumental beauties, its sea, its agriculture, its accommodation capacity, its port, etc.
But be careful to continue demonizing those sectors belonging to the world of industry, which contribute to making Italy the second largest manufacturing industry in Europe, after Germany, and which produce stable, legal, contractual employment and a quantity of production that cannot be replaced by other sectors, also considering that it is with industry that we invest in research and new technologies.
So let’s all return to reason and clarity, demanding together that the industrial dismantling of this territory be stopped, starting by opposing the early closure of Federico II.
And let it be done, both due to the lack of short-term alternatives for direct and indirect workers and for the business system linked to the Central, and due to a situation of geopolitical vulnerability which always sees Italy highly dependent from an energy point of view for more from politically unstable countries.
We remember that if the G7 agreed to exit coal by 2035, we believe that closing Cerano one or two years beyond 2025 would be a responsible choice from an economic and employment point of view for this area.
Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin is urged to listen to this invitation from the entire ruling class of the territory, without exception, if it is really intended not to cause further and heavy damage to employment, such as that undertaken by SIR, a subsidiary of Enel, which has started the staff reduction procedure (ex law 223/91), without neglecting other job losses suffered in the services and contracting sector of the same plant.
For some time we have called for an ad hoc national law for Brindisi that will relaunch the sectors present here, with public and private investments involving the large player committing them to invest in the area and not just in other parts of the country, if not even abroad.
Let’s imagine one golden power for Brindisi where, precisely, the State guarantees and facilitates the relaunch of the industry in the area rather than its impoverishment.
We as CISL reiterate and relaunch our proposal for a Responsibility Pact, which brings together those who really and coherently intend to participate in the common good of the territory, to safeguard the work of today and that of tomorrow, thus giving hope to our young people with facts, not with dreams, not with slogans and not with empty words.
Gianfranco Solazzo
General Secretary CISL Taranto Brindisi
