USI

On Friday the 3rd of June, four members of the North London Solidarity Federation were lucky enough to sit down with and engage in comradely discussion some twelve members of the Milan Local of the Italian USI – AIT.

As one North London SolFed member is currently residing in Milan, when USI heard that other NLSFers were coming to town, they requested we join them at their local office (well, one one of two local offices) to discuss what sorts of activities IWA members have been getting up to in London. Acting through two very capable interpreters, North London led a discussion on the 'structure, strategy, and practical activities' of London Solfed. In particular, USI were interested in our training program, our relationship to other radical organisations in the UK, and the UK student movement. They also seemed to be quite impressed with the quality of our publicity with both organisations exchanging newspapers, leaflets, and posters.

For part of the last year, South London Local of SolFed has had Cesare, from Unione Sindacale Italiana (USI), the Italian section of our International, as our comrade and guest. As he is returning to Italy, we took the opportunity to interview him about USI, and the situation for workers organising in Italy.

SLSF: What is the size of USI and how is it broken down by region and industry?

Cesare: We have about 1000 dues paying members and about 500 more who are in arrears. We are concentrated in the north of Italy, particularly Lombardy and Emilia. At our last Congress we had new sections join from Genoa, Fiat workers from Portense and health workers in Tuscany.

We have a problem in the south, only having sections in Portense and Naples and scattered individual members. The north is where most of the work is, while the south is very poor with high unemployment.

The IKEA store in the city of Brescia sacked 7 store employees in September 2008 refusing to renew their contract with them. The company believed that employees should pay for the crisis. These people had worked at IKEA for many years, working up to 200 hours per month for as little as 1000 Euros. So the workers decided to protest against this sacking and engaged in picketing at the IKEA store. They have were an established group of workers Senzatemponedenaro and were willing to fight a stubborn struggle. They also joined the USI, the Italian section of the International Workers Association. They conducted continous weekend pickets at IKEA with many people deciding to boycott the store.

On December 17, the labour court ruled to reinstate Belmadani Azzedine with all the other employees, back to work. He also will receive compensation. Unionists from the USI are confident that everyone who wants to get reinstated will be.

Solidarity with sacked IKEA workers in Brescia, Italy.
 
On 1st September, whilst workers were being transferred between one work agency to another, 7 workers were sacked, even though they had been assured they would be absorbed into the new agency.

These general service workers had been working at IKEA for several years, had been lowly paid at €5 per hour and working up to 200 hours per month and had been working in unsafe working conditions in the underground car park with no exhaust fans. Workers even had to purchase their own safety clothing.

It is obvious that IKEA had no respect for the workers health and preferred to ignore health and safety rules in order to maximise profit. With decreasing sales, IKEA chose to downsize their workforce and weaken the work conditions of the workers, with restaurant and bar staff within the complex now having to perform the duties of the sacked carpark workers.