The temperature on the docks of Psa Genova Pra’, the largest container gateway terminal in Genoa and Italy, is increasingly scorching, but the summer heat has nothing to do with it.
After the clear rejection by workers of the draft of the new supplementary agreement – with the consequent resignation of the Rsu (unitary trade union representation) that had drafted it with the company – and Psa’s attempt to reach an agreement with the local secretariats of the unions that signed the Ccnl (Filt Cgil, Fit Cisl and Uiltrasporti), equally clearly rejected by the recipients, today the terminal operator attempted another move.
A statement addressed to operational workers, premised on the fact that “the need to guarantee adequate coverage of operational shifts in line with contractual commitments with our customers puts Psa Gp in a position to request extraordinary services from operational personnel as provided for by art. 8 of the Ccnl port workers”, invited them to individual and paid meetings “to inform about the operational situation during the summer holiday period and to illustrate the solutions that Psa Gp intends to adopt to guarantee adequate operational capacity”.
The reaction of Filt, Fit and Uiltrasporti was very harsh, which, reserving the right to assess the possible configuration of an anti-union action pursuant to the Workers’ Statute, in a note defined the initiative as a “very serious and provocative corporate abomination”, consisting of “a veiled threat and a bribe”.
“They want to buy individual consent to get through the window what employees threw out the door with a democratic vote. They are trying to offload the staffing problems that the company is unable to manage onto the private lives and shifts of the workers” attacked the provincial secretaries of the three unions, explaining how “no one must accept coercion or, even less, feel obliged or threatened. The company is in a hurry because it is afraid of the summer. We have a duty to protect the rights and dignity of all Psa Gp employees, which the company statement harms. The real confrontation, the one where there are no directors at the podium, but the workers who decide their own future, we will have it on July 2nd in a unitary assembly”.
Just yesterday, Filt, Fit and Uiltrasporti recalled, a meeting had been called to take stock after the events of recent weeks: “The objective is clear: to stop, listen to the rank and file members, and then convene a general assembly and decide together how to restart after the referendum that rejected the agreement with the consequent resignation of the Rsu. But today, just over 24 hours later, the company responds with a theatrical stunt”.
Unacceptable for the confederal union, for which “a decisive and strong response to such corporate behavior will lead to the most appropriate forms of struggle shared with the workers”.
A.M.
