Industry, work, agriculture, healthcare, municipal services for the elderly: these are the issues that were at the center of the debate last night, Friday, between the candidates for mayor of Forlì Gianluca Zattini (centre-right) and Graziano Rinaldini (centre-left) as part of the Uil union party. Moved at the last minute from Piazza Morgagni to the Santa Caterina room due to the uncertain weather forecast, the meeting was moderated by the general secretary of Uil Enrico Imolesi.
Work and industry
And we start immediately on a hot topic: layoffs and planned reductions in staff at the Electrolux plant are threats that loom over the main industrial plant in Forlì. The Swedish group, in fact, has been recording a decline in sales for some time. And the topic is raised by a union delegate from the factory. The two mayoral candidates said they were confident from that point of view. “There is an ongoing commercial crisis, but not one regarding the automation or robotics of the plant,” comments Rinaldini. “The Electrolux plant in Forlì is a flagship as it is also a center of innovation and research, it is a reality that is difficult to put aside,” says Zattini. However, more skepticism arose from some of the public.
However, for Rinaldini, there are alarm bells for the Forlì industry: entrepreneurial decline, increased layoffs, even if the biggest problem is that “the economy of the province of Forlì-Cesena would need 41 thousand workers, while hiring has been just three thousand.” Zattini on his part recalls that “Forlì is a large industrial city with growing and world-leading companies, a fact that makes us proud. Then there are the critical issues, including staff who are no longer available, a phenomenon that affects all sectors.” A problem that for Zattini must be addressed with “training, scholastic orientation and greater interaction between companies and schools or universities”. One of the biggest problems, however, for the centre-right candidate is low wages: “The recent double-digit inflation has eaten up one month’s salary a year.”
And speaking of work, a specific question about deaths and injuries at work. Rinaldini sinks politically on this: “In construction, workers are employed who do not have adequate training, then there is the new procurement code wanted by Salvini which has liberalized cascade subcontracting, and this is a big problem.” From Rinaldini also a ‘no’ “to contracts at the lowest price and to public services entrusted to consortia without workers who then find themselves relying on some craftsman”. From Zattini the reply: “The Municipality of Forlì never makes tenders at the lowest possible price.”
Healthcare
On healthcare, the Uil, through the trade unionist Michele Bertaccini, makes a specific request: the recovery of the Allende pavilion of the hospital, which “is still at its origins, but houses important departments such as geriatrics and physiotherapy, a missing piece of the hospital on which investments are needed.” The two candidates also made it a priority to create a building with classrooms, study rooms, canteen and social services for university students.
For Zattini “healthcare is in a transition phase, with the progressive retirement of the professionals who created the excellence of our hospital, while there is great discomfort among the professionals if it is true that the company budget has passed only thanks to the double vote of the general director”. The outgoing mayor suspends judgment on the Cau, recalling that in the emergency rooms “the shortage of doctors is difficult to resolve”. From the centre-right candidate a passage on the importance of accredited private healthcare and, the last card he put on the electoral table, the importance of having the former head physician Claudio Vicini as healthcare advisor.
For Rinaldini, however, “we start from public and universal healthcare, the principle on which the Italian system is based and which we want to maintain”. And it sinks in on the Government: “It doesn’t make investments, it doesn’t unblock hiring, it has decreased healthcare spending compared to GDP and doesn’t respond to the regions, largely led by the centre-right, to have 20 billion more on healthcare.” And again: “Due to the low salaries, doctors and nurses go to work abroad, the university’s limited number creates 5,000 doctors compared to the 9,000 who leave the profession.” Rinaldini’s recipe is what was done about 20 years ago with the opening of the new hospital: “As Formula Servizi we went with the professionals to verify the different European models, studying the standards of 115 European hospitals. And Claudio Vicini was also with us.”
Services for the elderly
Finally, the Uil pensioners’ component asks about services for the elderly. For retirement homes, Zattini explains that “the ASP must be put at the center of attention, there are accounting problems but we rejected the request to increase fees by 1,500 euros more per year”. And again: “The presence of the public is essential in retirement homes, in a context in which profit tends to prevail over service”. Rinaldini, however, for the future calls for the greater introduction of robotics, digitalisation and telemedicine, and to experiment with Northern European formulas such as “retirement villages, interesting experiences, also open for example to students where they receive lessons in life and ancient professions”. Rinaldini then expresses the need for greater controls on family homes, “which must be regularized because there are fragile people there”.
However, there is not only the issue of care, but also of active ageing. “The ‘grandparents’ network is fundamental, without the grandparents there would be upheavals in the family. Many dynamics are changing: volunteering is now seeing a lot of gray hair,” says Zattini. Rinaldini also reminds us that if volunteering stopped, many services would cease. And as regards the elderly, “there is a lack of places where active elderly people can meet to carry out activities”.
