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ABSTRACT
After the Fiat-Chrysler merger in 2009, CEO Sergio Marchionne imposed a drastic reorganization of labour relations in Italy’s plants, precipitating a profound crisis of the system of industrial relations in the country. But between 2015 and 2017 a significant section of workers at Melfi, Atessa and Termoli plants went on strike against compulsory overtime and labour intensification, establishing links with grassroots unions that successfully organized in logistics. The metalworkers’ union FIOM-CGIL, however, delegitimized the union representatives who resisted Marchionne’s plans. In this article, we trace the context and development of these still little-known strikes. Because of their growing institutionalization, we argue, the confederal unions (CGIL, CISL, UIL) have both failed to mobilize workers and repressed workers’ attempts to resist the deterioration of their conditions. The strikes at FCA and in logistics, however, show that new forms of radical unionism are emerging, pointing to new possibilities for working-class organizing.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. The system of ‘vouchers for casual labour’ (managed by Italy’s National Institute for Social Insurance) was used to pay for casual work services. Vouchers conferred workers no ability to bargain collectively, earn sick, maternity or holiday pay, or earn unemployment benefits. Between 2011 and 2016 the use of voucher-based work increased by 461 percent (from 23,813,978 voucher-cheques in 2012 to 133,826,001 in 2016) (INPS, Citation2017; UIL, Citation2016). This extensive use of vouchers was abolished by the Gentiloni government in 2017 in order to avoid actually holding the referendum. The referendum on unfair dismissal was ruled out as inadmissible by the Constitutional Court.
2. The name is hard to translate in English. It means literally Trade Union of the Base.
3. The inclusion of young people in the labour market has become more precarious because regular jobs have been replaced by internships (Cillo, Citation2017).
4. FCA is an US-Italian company registered under Dutch Law since 2014.
5. Sergio Marchionne (1952–2018) was elected as an independent member of the Board of Directors of Fiat S.p.A. in May 2003, and then appointed CEO in 2004. In June 2009, when Fiat received a 20 percent stake in Chrysler Group LLC, Marchionne was appointed CEO. The last version of this article was written in May 2018, two months before Marchionne’s death.
6. Sevel is a joint venture between Fiat Group Automobiles and PCA, which owns Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel and Vauxhall Motors. It produces light commercial vehicles with the brands Fiat Ducato, Peugeot and Citroën.
7. A prominent practice in logistics is the outsourcing of labour-intensive activities to cooperatives employing low-paid immigrant workers (Massarelli, Citation2014).
8. In 2003 CGIL organized a three-million-strong demonstration against Berlusconi’s proposed reform of dismissal procedures (Meardi, Citation2014).
9. Second level bargaining is not compulsory and covers 55 percent of the workforce and 20 percent of enterprises (Leonardi, Citation2016).
10. RSU are unified workers’ organizations representing all workers employed in a workplace. Until 2013, one third of RSU delegates were designated or elected by the trade unions that signed the national collective agreement and the remaining two thirds were elected by all workers; other trade unions had to collect the signatures of the 5 percent of employees to stand in RSU elections. RSA representatives, on the contrary, ‘can be formed on the initiative of workers in each production unit within trade unions that have signed collective labour contracts applied to the production unit’.
11. In the first ten months of 2017, the balance between new hires and terminations of contracts in the private sector amounted to +729,314. This is due to the growth of fixed-term contracts (+925,108), apprenticeship contracts (+114,122) and seasonal contracts (+12,207), which offset the decline in open-ended contracts (-322,123) (INPS, Citation2017).
12. The previous national collective agreement (2013–15) was only signed by FIM-CISL and UILM.
13. In 1993 the Melfi plant was opened in a ‘greenfield’ location (Danford, Richardson, Pulignano, & Stewart, Citation2008).
14. Uas (Universal Analysis System) is a metric system associated to a check-list for the analysis of ergonomic risk factors, called Ergo.
15. Case New Holland Industrial (CNH) is controlled by Exor, which belongs to the Agnelli family. It produces agricultural machines, trucks, commercial vehicles, buses and special vehicles.
16. The election of Workers’ Safety Representatives is regulated by labour legislation, so neither the CCSLs nor the national agreements between employers’ organizations and trade unions can impede the participation of all unions. In July 2013, the Constitutional Court recognized the right to exercise trade union activities also to organizations that did not sign the CCSLs. In September FCA allowed FIOM to appoint RSA representatives (FCA, Citation2013; Rossi, Citation2013).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Rossana Cillo
Rossana Cillo is a PhD student in Sociology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and a research fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Her research interests include racial discriminations at work, immigrant workers and trade unions, labour exploitation in agriculture, posted workers and precarious work of youth. Among her recent publications are Nuove frontiere della precarietà del lavoro: Stage, tirocini e lavoro degli studenti universitari, Edizioni Ca’ Foscari (edited collection, 2017), and ‘New immigrant struggles in Italy’s logistics industry,’ Comparative European Politics 16(1), 2018 (with Lucia Pradella).
Lucia Pradella
Lucia Pradella is a Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy at King’s College London. Her research focuses on imperialism, the working poor in Europe and alternatives to neoliberalism and the global economic crisis. She is the author of several journal articles and two monographs: Globalisation and the critique of political economy: New insights from Marx’s writings (2014) and L’Attualità del Capitale: Accumulazione e impoverimento nel capitalismo globale (2010). She co-edited Polarizing development: Alternatives to neoliberalism and the crisis (2014).