The law is the same for everyone is one of the most used rhetorical expressions in our country. And this certainly applies – at least in part – to citizens, even when laws are unfair or poorly written (that is, in most cases). However, for large institutions, especially those with a leftist appearance, no. Starting with the union, in this case the CGIL and the UIL – who did not think twice about contesting the decision of the strike guarantor for whom the one proclaimed for next Friday is not a general strike but rather a sectoral one as it does not concern all categories and is therefore subject to time constraints in sectors such as public transport.
Naturally, as always happens in Italy, the controversy between the government and the union has widened and affected a whole series of areas in which ideology reigns supreme, starting with the mutual accusation of “politicization”: the government considers this strike a weapon inappropriate, therefore, an instrument that has more of a political purpose than a union one; while the union claims the opposite and considers the executive’s hostility an attack on its freedom resulting from a specific political mindset. Beyond the exclamations that accompany any controversy, in reality it all comes down to a question of rules, the question of whether they should be respected or not. And as they are questioned by a guy who always fills his mouth with “legality”, laws, principles, that is, the union, then we suspect that we are facing the typical example of someone who preaches well and succeeds poorly. Even more so because the objective of the CGIL and UIL (withdrawal from CISL), that is, the paralysis of transport, does not affect the government as much as the citizens and the country.
They are the ones who are put in difficulties, who suffer the consequences of the rites – because that is what archaic unionism is about. Even public transport companies, whose budgets are perpetually in the red, almost stand to gain because on that day they are exempt from paying salaries, gasoline, electricity or anything else: a paradox within a paradox. Not to mention – for the good of the country, sorry, the union – that strange “cliché” according to which strikes, especially in transport, are always proclaimed on Fridays or Mondays. Even Pietro Ichino, an expert in labor law and former senator for the Democratic Party, is scandalized by this behavior.
Furthermore, the use of similar devices demonstrates that confederations no longer have the following they once had. It’s as if they admitted the crisis. And here we come to a key point: the “politicization” of the protests, of the union initiative, is the real disease that has eroded its authority. A true pathology that made him less credible, especially in the eyes of workers. And at the same time, it didn’t help the political left either. On the contrary. The image of huge demonstrations, of fifty thousand in Piazza del Popolo to speak of the last one, does not always correspond to an increase in electoral support (last week it could be a coincidence but the Democratic Party lost a point at the polls). In fact, never before has the saying “full squares, empty ballot boxes” seemed to work as much as it does now. And if we look beyond the borders of our garden, it may be a coincidence, but the left that is in government in Europe, that is in the control room in Germany, in Spain, and that aspires to enter England has a reformist brand, if not to say centrist. In short, it is anything but maximalist as Schlein’s Democratic Party appears to be.
Source: IL Tempo
Emma Fitzgerald is an accomplished political journalist and author at The Nation View. With a background in political science and international relations, she has a deep understanding of the political landscape and the forces that shape it.
