Uil general secretary becomes president of Cnel

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In June 2000, Pietro Larizza, the general secretary of the Uil trade union confederation, was appointed president of Italy's consultative National Council for Economic Affairs and Labour (Cnel), despite the opposition of the Confindustria employers' confederation. Luigi Angeletti succeeded Mr Larizza as Uil general secretary.

On 28 June 2000, a new council (the seventh) of the National Council for Economic Affairs and Labour (Consiglio generale dell'economia e del lavoro, Cnel) took office. Cnel is a constitutional consultative body - made up of representatives of workers, companies and the self-employed, plus experts - whose role is to advise the government and parliament on economic and labour issues and to foster dialogue between the parties. The council's first act was to appoint a new president, Pietro Larizza, the general secretary of the Uil trade union confederation. The importance of the event was underlined by the inaugural ceremony which saw the participation of the President of the Republic, Carlo Azelio Ciampi, the Prime Minister, Giulio Amato, and the top leaders of the social partner organisations, with the exception of the Confindustria employers' confederation, which sent only its general vice-director, Rinaldo Fadda.

The absence of Confindustria's top leaders was a clear signal of dissent over the election of Mr Larizza and of the critical attitude towards relations with the government and the trade unions that Confindustria has shown since the recent election of its new president, Antonio D'Amato (IT0006268F). Confindustria has expressed perplexity about a trade union leader taking over the presidency of the constitutional body which should foster social dialogue. According to Confindustria, the election of Mr. Larizza breaks with the practice of choosing a non-aligned Cnel president, such as the outgoing president, Giuseppe De Rita, an eminent academic in the field of social problems.

The beginning of the seventh council was also accompanied by a political debate on Cnel's role. Many observers have stated that the role of this body has de facto been taken over by the practice of concertation among the social partners and government which is now carried outside Cnel. In this regard, during his inaugural speech Mr Larizza underlined that Cnel should be the "institution of reference" for the practice of concertation and for the development of political proposals on the reform of the welfare state, aimed at strengthening social cohesion.

With the departure of Mr Larizza as Uil general secretary, the position was filled by Luigi Angeletti on 13 June 2000. He was elected by Uil's central committee with no votes against and only seven abstentions. Mr Angeletti comes from Uil's metalworking federation and his election is considered the outcome of a compromise among Uil factions, represented by Adriano Musi, the newly elected Uil deputy general secretary, and by Silvano Miniati, general secretary of Uil's retired workers' union respectively. Mr Musi stated that the election of Mr Angeletti was a solution aimed at safeguarding the unity of the confederation: "otherwise, there would have been a dispute within the organisation with the risk of dividing it".

Uil has 1.7 million members and is the third largest trade union confederation in Italy. Recently it has often acted as a peacemaker between the two other main trade union confederations (Cgil and Cisl) during periods of crisis in trade union unity (IT9912137F).

The election of Mr Angeletti, who comes from the sector with the greatest experience of joint trade union action, should boost the search for union unity in Italy. In his inaugural speech, he underlined that "only unity of action can guarantee the success of our initiatives." Mr Angeletti also dealt with the current problems of the trade unions and opposed Confindustria's wish to reduce the current two collective bargaining levels (national-sectoral and local/company) to just one level. Furthermore, he declared that he is in favour of the relaunch of concertation as a tool for modernising the Italian social system.

The election of Mr Angeletti was welcomed by the other union confederations. Sergio Cofferati, general secretary of Cgil, stated that the election of Mr Angeletti could be very important in terms of union unity: "it will increase the possibilities for the trade union confederations to recover the old unity of action". Sergio D'Antoni, general secretary of Cisl, underlined that the presence of Mr Angeletti could be very important for the Italian industrial relations system, considering the new Uil general secretary as "a guide and a loyal partner able to relaunch the policy of concertation".