CGIL and Landini fail and call for strike against tax reform

Back to the past. The recipe for Italy’s largest and most important union is not tax cuts, amendments to existing contracts or a less dogmatic approach to corporate issues. All outdated concepts. The winning idea is the strike against the incumbent government. Even better because it is conservative and presided over by a prime minister who is the expression of a right-wing party. Maurizio Landini, re-elected general secretary of the CGIL at the end of the 19th national congress with 94.2% of the favorable votes, outlined the next battles that await him. «With the government and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni there is a very deep, very consistent diversity. For the entire Italian union there is no possibility of discussion, we need to start a mobilization that does not exclude any means, including the strike if necessary. We want to do it together with Cisl and Uil, we are going to discuss it with them, we already have a meeting scheduled for next week ». No dialogue, no negotiations, no alternative proposals. Strike in the hope that the government, if not today then tomorrow, may have difficulties. And perhaps a leftist executive will come to power in his place.

«We say it clearly to the government, to the political forces, to the counterparts: we are not going to stop and we are not going to accept that it is the work that pays everyone – thundered Landini -. We want to change this country more than the government and more than the political forces and we say to Cisl and Uil: we want to do it together with you and the other workers. We will not stop. We will win the battle. What are we afraid of, what are we supposed to lose? The pensions we don’t have, the precariousness, the salary we don’t receive until the end of the month? If you don’t do anything, you’ve lost before you start.” The government’s fault is not so much that of trying to reform a 19th century tax system. Based on canons and ideas largely superseded by economic reality. On the contrary, listening to Landini speak, the time seems to have stopped. If you listen to these words, with your eyes closed, you still seem to see millions of steel workers parading through the main Italian cities. taxes paid by employees and pensioners. And I say it clearly: I’m upset that I’m always the one who pays even for those who don’t pay and that I’m always the one who guarantees this public health instead of those who don’t but use it. new pact for citizens and if 90% of income tax is paid by employees and pensioners, the government however only talks about it with companies or with those who evade taxes ».

The trade unionist from Reggio then relaunched an old proposal of his: “An extraordinary contribution to the creation of a solidarity fund to create jobs with which to rebuild social cohesion in the country. On the other hand, with 100 billion in tax evasion, there is only one path to recovery to follow even if another path is possible: that the money, the cash, disappear, leaving the necessary trail to curb the evasion of technology”. Unsurprisingly, Elly Schlein caught the wave. Siding without ifs and buts on Landini’s side. «The government’s tax reform is worrying and surprising, I would like us to be united in saying that this nonsense of saying let’s lower taxes for everyone so that the whole country can feel better means making services lacking for the poor and lowering taxes for the rich. The real, very serious problem is that it is very expensive, they do it with cuts in education and health, it favors those who are in a better situation». He is echoed by Giuseppe Conte, leader of the Five Star Movement. “We are ready to take to the streets with the unions alone or with all other parties that want to oppose it. The delegation is a recessive project for the country that favors the more affluent layers of the population. We want a fairer and more progressive tax system because we cannot allow a gap of 200, 300, even 500 times between the top management and the base of the workers of the same company».