He would retire in September. A life, that of Antonio Russo, spent on construction sites. An expert carpenter, known by all, a historian registered with the CISL. From today, however, at the age of 63, he is a victim of yet another accident at work. Colleagues cry in front of the construction site in the Capodichino area of Naples. Russo and the injured workers, Michele Pannone, 54, and Salvatore Agliottone, 59, “did not invent their job overnight”, they say. The investigation will determine what happened. But “perhaps there was a brake failure” at the origin of the accident, explains mayor Gaetano Manfredi, adding that probably for this reason control of “a locomotive that was transporting a trolley” would have been lost. “There were three workers on board – adds the mayor – one jumped and therefore only suffered some abrasions, while two remained on board and crashed into the wall. One died, the other was seriously injured “. Andrea Lanzetta, general secretary of Feneal Uil Naples and Campania, is moved when he talks about Russo. He had known him for over 30 years. “He was a very expert worker, a worker who was always within the framework of a job who had always worked with structured companies – he says -. And he was four months away from retirement, we had done the calculations just a short time ago. He worked on a piece of the median axis, on the line 6 of the Mergellina tunnel. In short, we are talking about a worker, like the other workers involved in the accident, who did not invent his job overnight. Antonio did his job without ever hindering that of others, he was competent , knowledge of what he was doing, knew how to foresee, without a doubt, a carpenter capable of carrying out drawings, professionally trained”. Lanzetta is moved, but also angry: “In the age of artificial intelligence, we are instead taking a step backwards with all these deaths at work. It’s not possible.” And the anger is also that of the other unions. “Today’s very serious accident on the Capodichino construction site of Line 1 of the Naples metro is the second to be recorded on the same construction site in a few months. All of this is unacceptable: prevention, organization of working times, daily checks are needed, especially on large construction sites and preventive training on particular works such as that of the Naples metro”, says the general secretary of the CGIL Naples and Campania, Nicola Ricci. “One more death at work. A worker who will not return home this evening. Antonio Russo was a historic member of the CISL. Today’s tragedy highlights that we need to act immediately in the face of this slaughter that does not stop”, underlined Gianpiero Tipaldi and Massimo Sannino, respectively general secretary of CISL Napoli and Filca CISL Napoli. Giovanni Sgambati, general secretary of Uil Campania, instead speaks of “an interminable escalation of death. All this must be stopped, all this calls for justice and preventive and timely actions”.
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