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Strong unions in ports, Interview with Massimo Ercolani at the ETF 2009 Congress

29 May 2009

Massimo Ercolani who is in charge of the port sector within our Italian affiliate FILT CGIL talked to us about strong unions, one of the Congress’ main subjects. Similar to several other countries, Italian port workers are a highly unionized, and therefore strong category of workers, though they are never immune to attacks aimed at weakening the strong power they yield.

According to our Italian colleague, there are two main elements that make unions strong.

First of all, he said, there is a need for legislation that will give workers’ unions the right to exist, to be properly represented, to be heard, and to take action when required. As an example, he mentioned Italian port workers’ right to strike, which is subject to far less constraints than other sectors. This gives port workers much strength; as their unions are allowed to call for a strike whenever they deem it necessary. This happened recently in order to raise awareness on the need to improve H&S in the sector following the unfortunate death of workers in several Italian ports. The right to elect shop stewards and representatives in charge of health and safety at workplace who have a strong link with unions also fortify workers’ organisations.

The second element that makes workers’ organisation strong is their capacity to act, to be present and visible amongst workers and to achieve results that in turn make them trustworthy in the eyes of the workers. This aspect is especially true considering that nowadays, at least in Italy, people’s decisions to join unions are based less and less on ideologies or political reason, and more and more on the need for the protection and acquisition of existing rights. For instance, Italian unions managed to sign a comprehensive collective agreement that is applicable to all workers employed in port-related activities in Italy. The economic and normative clauses set by this agreement have to be applied by any enterprise that wants to be granted the authorisation to operate in Italian ports. The existence of such a social clause certainly represents a great success for Italian transport unions and surely makes them visible and credible vis-à-vis their members.

Italian port workers and the good relationship that has generally existed between employers and unions have been constantly challenged. At the moment, for instance, the right-wing government is attempting, due to the lobby exerted by logistics operators, shippers and freight forwarders, to liberalize labour supply in cargo handling. The resistance of the unions has been, so far, very effective, and workers will no doubt keep fighting against any attempts to introduce casual labour which will worsen working conditions.

A challenge for Italian port unions is the organisation of workers employed in small-sized enterprises, where the unionisation level is still not satisfactory, especially because enterprises with less than 15 employees are excluded from the scope of the law on workers’ representation.

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