27 June, 2013On Saturday 22 June after ten years of separate national agreements the three biggest Italian union confederations CGIL, CISL and UIL joined their forces in San Giovanni square of Rome.
Over 100,000 members of the three Italian union organizations delivered the strong and clear demand to the Government: to stop empty promises and to set as urgent priorities tax reforms, create stimulus for job creation and protection, industrial policy for youth employment and a solution for unemployment.
The meeting in the square of San Giovanni was preceded by two long processions with activists holding banners demanding “Labour and democracy” for Italy.
The unions call for a tax reform which will have lower taxes for workers, pensioners and the companies that create jobs for them. On the other hand CGIL, CISL and UIL also demand Government to implement an industrial policy encouraging job creation while protecting those who suffer the most.
Addressing the rally, Luigi Angeletti, UIL accused the Government of a lack of political will to make changes saying, “For so many years there is no industrial policy in Italy resulting in enterprises closing down. It does not stem from the global economic crisis but is the result of a political incapacity to make good choices,” and demanded in the first place fiscal reform "because the fiscal situation is a real drama in this country. The taxes paid by entrepreneurs are lower than the average paid by employees”. On precarious work the UIL leader also said that the only change that can really make a difference in industrial policy would be the decision “to make permanent contracts cheaper than flexible ones.”
Susanna Camusso, General Secretary of CGIL urged the government to build its policy around a labour centered model “providing dignity, freedom and independence, otherwise, democracy will be at risk, on top of the country’s economy.”
Raffaele Bonanni, CISL asked the government to “be brave” and side with workers instead of following the “byzantine routine of the former policy.”