The unions: “Vado Gateway seeks greater flexibility from workers and savings on labor costs and employment quality”
Savona – Immediate state of agitation and a 24-hour strike of the port of Savona Vado Ligure on December 15. The Savona provincial secretariats of Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl and Uiltrasporti have sent the communication to Vado Gateway, to the Western Ligurian Sea Port System Authority (Adsp), as well as to the Prefecture and the Industrialists’ Union, explaining that the decision is necessary “to counter the attempt to introduce atypical forms of flexibility into the port labor model and simultaneously recover the working conditions and quality of life of female and male workers.”
“Vado Gateway is using part-time employment contracts – explain the unions – an issue for which a discussion had been requested at the Port System Authority, which did not deem it necessary to convene the parties. The terminal operator’s decision, despite a positive and steadily increasing balance sheet, is a symptom of a corporate approach that seeks greater flexibility from workers and savings on labor costs and employment quality.”
A choice that, according to Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl and Uiltrasporti, strongly destabilizes “the balance of the port model and safety” with workers who, to make ends meet, would have to perform “a substantial amount of overtime work.”
“We ask that full-time employment contracts be used,” the unions therefore emphasize, also concerned about the risk that the model will be replicated at other terminals in the port “causing a widespread deterioration of all port employment and dragging a strategic sector into instability, a sector that, thanks to Law 84/94, is already set up to meet operational and port traffic needs without having to resort to forms of precarious work.”
Finally, the trade union organizations conclude, the choice to use part-time contracts fits into a context of already strained relations, due to the “demand for pushed operations” and the “continuously deteriorating” relationship with the port workers.
