“We have listened carefully and with concern to the workers’ demands, which have emerged in a complex international context, characterized by high inflation rates and slow growth, difficulties in the logistics chain, and pressures due to the war in the Ukraine, particularly in the energy sector. We consider their reservations legitimate and their demands serious, but at the same time we have to work together, port authorities, workers, companies, ship owners and trade associations to ensure the port remains fully operational, which is the undeniable priority for our local area and our region.”
This is what president Luciano Guerrieri said on the sidelines of a meeting with the trade unions, which met this morning in front of the Port Network Authority’s headquarters at Palazzo Rosciano to discuss the critical issues that, over the last few days, had led them to threaten a strike. Their discontent is founded on three key points: wages, which are inadequate to cope with the galloping inflation rate, safety and health (due to the physical effects of an increasingly taxing job).
Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl and Uiltrasporti have in fact announced a ten-day strike starting on 12th September if the proposals formulated by the unions (after a three-day union meeting from 23rd to 25th August) on safety, wages and health are not accepted.
While elsewhere (in England and Germany) trade union disputes are multiplying in the ports due to the high cost of living, Mr Guerrieri intends to do everything possible “so that the legitimate complaints of distortions in the sector do not further undermine the stability of the port’s traffic, with the confidence that a close, serious confrontation between the parties, which the Authority will facilitate in every way, can prevent the strike from taking place”.
This is why, together with managing director Matteo Paroli and his staff, the president of the Port Network Authority declared his intention to take action straight away:”Starting next week,” he declared, “we will begin a series of meetings with the trade unions and trade associations, in the hope of being able to identify the best solutions to the problems raised by the workers. At the same time, however, we must try to safeguard continuity and the port remaining fully operational. It is indispensable.”
Translation by Giles Foster
