Late in the evening, after nine hours of negotiation, it was finally agreed to both call off the strike and lift the overtime ban. The technical roundtable had been set up by the Port Network Authority to settle the disputes between the management and workers at Terminal Darsena Toscana (TDT) regarding the renewal of the second level supplementary bargaining.
After two years of numerous unproductive meetings, today, at Palazzo Rosciano, the parties signed a technical agreement, overcoming their differences on key issues such as updating pay rates for mandatory shift change, the performance bonus and the flexibility allowance.
“It was hard but, in the end, common sense prevailed,” said President Luciano Guerrieri, who, along with Managing Director Matteo Paroli and state property executive Fabrizio Marilli, had been working to ensure the arduous negotiations were successful. “The port could not afford to face another day with strikes. The company has to be credited with the effort it had to make to meet the workers’ demands. At the same time, I appreciated the seriousness and determination shown by the unions during these difficult negotiations.”
The Port Network Authority’s managing director stressed the strategic importance of a solution which had the port’s interests at heart: “I believe that the Port Network Authority deserves to take a small part of the merit in achieving this important result. Thanks to the Authority’s guidance and mediation, the negotiation table produced an agreement to the mutual satisfaction of all and in the best interests of port traffic. We are proud to report that the difficult situation that, in the long run, would have undermined the image and credibility of our port has now been solved.”
The Representatives from Assiterminal and Confindustria Livorno-Massa Carrara, Luigi Robba and Ettore Bartolo respectively, who had been taking part in the meetings on the dispute over the last few months, were equally satisfied. For the unions, the new supplementary agreement raises the quality and salary standards of work in the port, encouraging a new season of prosperity and harmonious industrial relations.
Translation by Giles Foster
