“Institutions and civil society must join together in a common battle to put an end to a situation which is not worthy of a civilized country and which offends the values of our Constitution. And in a broader sense, to open a season of social co-responsibility that allows us to take decisive steps with respect to all the great challenges on which the growth and future of the country depend. The time to try and succeed is now, not another. The CISL, as always, is there and will be there. Autonomous. Uncompromising. Free! To represent millions of workers who want to roll up their sleeves and build a better tomorrow by being protagonists for themselves, for our territories, for the entire country”. So the General secretary of the CISL Luigi Sbarra today in Rome closing the works of theNational Assembly of CISL delegates on health and safety at work.
“I want to thank every delegate for what you do in factories, construction sites, farms, public and private offices. I want to say thank you for every time that you were not told by politics, by the institutions, by the same companies in which you work every day to keep our guard high on the well-being and safety of workers” added the CISL leader underlining how “every time a tragedy occurs at work the condolences are unanimous, the emotion is great and the widespread indignation takes away from every a chorus of “never again” starts. After that, everything falls back into a general indifference, everything goes back to how it was before. And the workplace deaths scandal does not remain as the top priority it should be. It is precisely here, then, that the reasons for our mobilization and our coming together today lie. Protests born on an emotional wave and destined to remain there are no longer enough – It reaffirmed – . You cannot hope to clear your conscience simply with one more strike. The demagogic tones with which others would like to give us trade union lessons are indecent and dangerous. Because they set the social temperature on fire, heat up and break relationships between people in the workplace. They pit workers against workers. Bringing into the factories a climate that our country has already experienced.”
“Here is the network that holds Italy together! Which unites it, weaving together the threads of a cohesion that starts from dignified, safe, trained, protagonist and participatory work! All of this is you! You the young people, you the faces, the effort, the militancy and the experience that gives hope and a future to the recovery” – she urges her from the stage remembering that “this is why every time a worker dies, or gets injured, or becomes ill due to professional causes, the defeat affects the whole country. We are here to say that the trail of blood that continuously crosses workplaces that cannot be transformed into battlefields must be stopped. We are here to ask, to demand, that we move from momentary indignation to full awareness, to the will to give concrete answers.”
And again: “It is necessary to strengthen the staff of inspectors, with 766 new hires which will allow us to increase checks, controls and inspections, introduce a “credit licence” aimed at qualifying companies; open the path that will bring the subject of health and safety into the programs of schools of all levels. It is a recognition of our proposals and our mobilization. It is necessary to extend the credit license to all sectors, to develop rigorous criteria on rewards and sanctions together with the union, to attribute new supervisory and decision-making powers to the delegates for safety in companies and territories, extending those participatory levers at the basis of our proposed law, which after the extraordinary campaign to collect signatures is being examined by Parliament”.
“Must accelerate the legislative process for the introduction of workplace health and safety teaching in schools: Today’s students will be tomorrow’s workers and entrepreneurs. This is the job. It is self-realization. It’s feeling part of your community, completing yourself as a person and earning to support your family with dignity. You have to live by work, not die” – she concluded.
Already on the sidelines of the Assembly Sbarra had remarked: “Today the real protection that we must achieve for people in working environments is called training, it is called investment in skills, it is called learning, knowledge: this is the real issue today”As for the discussion with the government on health and safety at work: “it has already begun to produce initial important results, but still insufficient – he observed.
“It is good to have ordered a strengthening of checks and inspections in the workplace – he said – the hiring of 766 inspectors and prevention technicians is good. We have achieved an important result which is equal economic and regulatory treatment along the supply chain and procurement chain. We think it is necessary to use all the resources of the Inail surplus, equal to almost 3 billion, to support compulsory training, invest in the quality of businesses, hire technicians and researchers and also to improve and increase incomes and premiums for families affected by dramatic incidents in working environments”.
“Today’s initiative is an important stage in the mobilization process that the CISL has been supporting for more than a month now with hundreds and hundreds of assemblies in the workplace, with initiatives in the territories at a regional level. Our objective is to build a long horizon of commitment, protagonism, to raise people’s awareness and discuss with businesses and involve the system of local authorities on the topic of health, safety and safety. We need to strengthen prevention and training measures, starting from school. We think that today’s initiative is a path that will continue in working environments.”
As for relations with CGIL and UIL: “On the topic of health and safety in the workplace, “the objectives with CGIL and UIL are common. What distinguishes us is the evaluation of the results we bring home. The union cannot sell dreams, but must deal with reality and, in the difficult reality, achieve goals by enhancing and capitalizing on results in the relationship with workers. We have common objectives – she said – but there are different sensitivities. Trade union pluralism is a great asset of this country. Woe betide you if you rely only on the logic of a single thought and woe betide you if you lend yourself to operations that divide people and pit workers against each other. The CISL works for cohesion and national unity“.
He then commented on the CGIL referendum initiative to abolish the Jobs Act. “Raising the anachronistic flag of article 18 is wrong. Today the real protection to be achieved is called training, investment in skills”. The Jobs Act was “a great reform, not without shortcomings, but also with absolutely positive aspects. We respect the initiatives of the other trade unions – he continued – even if we feel like stating that we do not agree on the merits”. According to Sbarra, the Jobs Act “has helped to broaden and extend social safety nets; opposed the practice of blank resignations; the Naspi period lengthened; invested in active labor policies; eliminated project contracts; fought against false self-employment and internships. It’s wrong to lump everything together.” The number one of the CISL added that “we must build the conditions to improve labor standards, for example by thinking about a new status of the person in the labor market” – he concluded. .
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