There is great concern among trade union organizations in the agri-food sector regarding the progress of negotiations for the renewals of provincial collective labor contracts in the agricultural sectorin all seven provinces of Veneto.
Fai Cisl, Flai Cgil and Uila Uil brought together the entire trade union leadership group of the region to take stock of the situation, six months after the expiry of the previous contracts and after the various meetings held in the provincial tables.
«The common thread that is characterizing all the open discussions – denounce the trade union organizations represented by Andrea Zanin (Fai Cisl), Giosuè Mattei (Flai CGIL) and Giuseppe Bozzini (Uila Uil) – is the unwillingness of the counterparts of Confagricoltura, CIA, Coldiretti, to go into the merits of the specific issues and critical issues which are characterizing the agricultural sector in Veneto, i.e. the lack of attractiveness of the sector, the difficulty in finding labour, contracts for the so-called landless cooperatives and labor exploitation in all its forms, the theme of the territorial workers’ representative for the safety and the very important issue of wages. On this last point, that is the salary, we are finding ourselves at the table with largely insufficient proposals from employers’ associations in the face of real inflation still at high levels and with the IPCA index (Consumer Price Index) at 6.9%. In recent weeks we requested and obtained a meeting with the three regional presidents of the employers’ associations in order to resolve these and other issues and attempt to share strategies and priorities starting from work and the workers who are the backbone of this economy. All for restore attractiveness to agricultural work through fair pay and a modernization of the bilateral system which would take on a fundamental central role in training, safety and monitoring of the labor market.
We are quickly approaching the fruit and vegetable and wine harvesting season and all these issues still remain on the table without finding the will to concretely deal with these problems. The sector in Veneto involves a total of around 68,000 workers between seasonal workers and permanent workers waiting for the renewal of the collective labor agreement.
Further meetings between the provincial parties are scheduled for the next few days, in which we hope for an acceleration of the negotiations and therefore a positive resolution of the negotiation with the signing of the various renewals of the provincial contracts.
In the absence of this condition, the provincial structures of Fai, Flai and Uila have given a mandate to the regional secretariats to organize and coordinate a phase of mobilization organized across the territorywhich will see the participation in solidarity of the weakest link in the supply chain, i.e. agricultural workers, including workers in the processing and food industry, to restore centrality to the sector and for the right dignity, protection and wages for all workers agricultural workers in the Veneto”.
