TARANTO – Pasquale was 65 years old and a life spent in the flames of the chimneys of the former Ilva. He worked on industrial cleaning and battery maintenance, first in related industries and then as a worker directly employed by the factory when it was managed by the Riva family. He entered the steel hell in 1981 and grew up there until 1999 when, thanks to the recognition of his exposure to asbestos, he retired. His house in the Salinella district, his wife, his two children, his four grandchildren: the time to rest after the sweat and fatigue.
Until 2011 when back pain changes the history of an entire family. The diagnosis is one that does not allow for replication: carcinoma with widespread metastases. Just over two months later Pasquale Raffo, born in 1947, dies. His story is that of many other workers: work in related industries, employment at the Riva court, retirement and illness. And death. And it is also the story of the families who since 2017 have started a civil action against Ilva, which in the meantime went bankrupt and went into extraordinary administration under the leadership of three commissioners.
Around 150 of them turned to the lawyer Filomena D’Addario to seek justice: they pointed the finger at the factory, accusing it of being the cause of the deaths. The professional from Taranto asked for damages that in some cases reached up to 800 thousand euros. Ilva’s lawyers in As, however, have always rejected those requests and in the very first hearings of the civil cases they presented a request for settlement: the families agreed to obtain a quarter of what they had initially demanded and the Milan court, competent over these events after the collapse of the Riva company, recognized everyone’s right to compensation with sums ranging from a minimum of 5 thousand to a maximum of 200 thousand euros. Years have passed since that pronouncement, but none of them has ever seen a single cent…
