Trade unions and employers show solidarity towards Kosovo refugees

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In April 1999, Italian trade unions (Cgil, Cisl and Uil) and employers' organisations (Confapi and Confindustria) decided to launch a fund-raising initiative to help refugees from the crisis in Kosovo. Where workers donate an hour's pay, this will be matched by their employer. The unions also organised a demonstration in support of restoring diplomatic relations aimed at solving the crisis.

Italy's most important fund-raising initiative for the refugees from the crisis in Kosovo, and probably the only such scheme in Europe, has been jointly promoted by the Cgil, Cisl and Uil trade union confederations and two of the main employers' confederations, Confindustria and Confapi (representing small and medium-sized companies). This is an exceptional event, with similar joint initiatives having taken place just a few times in the past, on the occasion of serious calamities which have hit Italy.

Under the joint scheme, launched on 6 April 1999, the trade unions and employers' organisations decided to create a special fund to provide emergency aid for the population and refugees of Kosovo. Workers donate an hour of their pay to the fund, with their employer doing the same, thus doubling the value of the donation. The amount of money collected and the initiatives for which it will be allocated were to be defined before May in specific meetings between the organisations which promoted the initiative.

On 8 April, Cgil, Cisl and Uil organized a national demonstration calling for a halt to the killing and "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo and the restoration of diplomatic initiatives aimed at solving the crisis, in Bari, the Italian city closest to the war zone. The demonstration, attended by thousands of people (100,000 according to the organisers) ended with interventions by the secretaries general of Cgil, Cisl and Uil: Sergio Cofferati, Sergio D'Antoni and Antonio Larizza respectively.

Mr Larizza stated that he agreed completely with the Italian government's positions (full commitment to taking part in NATO initiatives) and asserted that peace was impossible unless Slobodan Milosevic, President of Yugoslavia withdrew his troops from Kosovo. Mr D'Antoni stated that the action of NATO was necessary: "Nobody accepts the rationale of arms. I'm a Catholic but I must say that the recourse to them was inevitable." He also underlined the role played by the "active solidarity" of trade unions towards the refugees. For his part, Mr Cofferati invited the Italian government to consider President Milosevic's overtures as "a gleam of hope to use to restore the diplomatic initiative" and "to take every further decision within NATO as a group".

The "active solidarity" of Cgil, Cisl and Uil towards the Kosovar population has been translated not only into the joint fund-raising with Confapi and Confindustria, but also the collection and distribution of goods and the presence of trade union representatives in the field. The unions plan to send 4,000 sets of children's clothes, 2,000 pairs of shoes, 4,000 sets of cutlery, 7,000 items for personal hygiene and cleaning and 20,000 bottles of water. They are also collecting enough children's food, canned food, sugar, rice and other necessities to feed 4,000 refugees for five days. A delegation composed of Cgil, Cisl and Uil representatives, together with representatives of the three confederations' international cooperation institutes (Progetto Sviluppo, Iscos and Progetto Studi respectively) were also due to leave for four refugee camps located in Albania.

The trade unions also asked the Italian public radio and television corporation (Radio Televisione Italiana, Rai) to broadcast at European level the traditional May Day concert organised by Cgil, Cisl and Uil every year in the Piazza San Giovanni in Rome. For Mr D'Antoni of Cisl, this event is of importance in the current situation: "it is an extraordinary occasion to give voice to young people, united in music, against all genocide, tyrannies, sufferings, in the hope of creating a better world".