After a sit in (in the photo) in Piazza delle Poste, a delegation of the Slc Cgil led by the general secretary of the Ragusa category, Elena Guastella, in the presence of the provincial secretary of the Ragusa CGIL, Francesco Maltese, was received by the vice prefect, Cettina Pennisi , to which a document was delivered which highlights the reasons for the ongoing dispute. And more specifically, the no to the privatization project of Poste Italiane was, and is, amply motivated:
retreat of territorial controls due to the closure of post offices, which would impoverish marginal geographical communities, with consequent impact on the weakest sections of society;
the same applies to the side effects on the universal delivery service, given the low economic margin of the cost/income ratio, which cannot affect companies and operators with structures structured to maximize profit;
sale and disposal of a strategic asset for the country, which would be accomplished through a revenue of just over three billion, which would be irrelevant for the reduction of the immense public debt, given the renunciation of share dividends quantified at over 250 million euros ;
Reduction in staff and employment cuts.
In the event that the Government were to deprive itself of the majority of the shares, we read in the document, it would lead to the transfer of ownership from public to private hands (the State’s public control of the largest service company in the country would end), with market logic which would take over the universal service and the same social role exercised, for over 150 years, by Poste Italiane in favor of the community, hitting the weakest and most marginal segments of society and the entrepreneurial fabric made up, in our territory, of small and medium businesses.
Apart from the repercussions on the social front, the operation appears to be, in itself, an authentic diseconomy on the financial front, as Poste’s business activity produces substantial budget profits, consolidated over time, with consequent significant transfers of resources in the public coffers in terms of dividends linked to the shareholdings held by the Mef. Therefore, in the face of a further sale of shares on the free market, negative balances would be recorded for the State budget itself.
The Italian Postal Company, with its widespread material and immaterial network, with more than 30 million relationships with citizens and small and medium-sized businesses, represents a strategic factor for the development of the entire country, especially in this delicate phase of ecological transition and digital. It could implement its activities by modeling them to the new levels of service and needs put forward by users, customers and the business world.
“We also believe that employment stability is at risk – they commented to Slc Cgil –: the Poste Group today employs just over 120,000 employees (whose employment relationship has been of a private nature since 1998) and the further phase of privatization would produce heavy repercussions also on the employment front.
We have represented to the Prefect of Ragusa the concerns addressed to us unions by the 120,000 families of postal employees, and which we pass on to the Government and Politics, so that they take charge of them for an institutional role, through your role in the territory”.
