Cisl, one of Italy's three main trade union confederations, held its 14th national congress on 12-15 June 2001. Savino Pezzotta was confirmed as general secretary. In his introductory speech, he stressed that Cisl must adjust itself to the continually evolving global and Italian economic situation in order to strengthen both itself and the role of labour within society. The debate on trade union unity was relaunched at the congress, with the general secretaries of the Uil and Cgil confederations participating.
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Cisl, one of Italy's three main trade union confederations, held its 14th national congress on 12-15 June 2001. Savino Pezzotta was confirmed as general secretary. In his introductory speech, he stressed that Cisl must adjust itself to the continually evolving global and Italian economic situation in order to strengthen both itself and the role of labour within society. The debate on trade union unity was relaunched at the congress, with the general secretaries of the Uil and Cgil confederations participating.
On 12-15 June 2001, the Italian Confederation of Workers' Unions (Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori, Cisl) held its 14th congress in Rome, bringing together 1,276 delegates. The months before the four-yearly national congress (the last was in 1997 - IT9706113N) saw more than 1,500 local congresses and 14 national sectoral congresses. With some 4 million members, Cisl is one of the three main Italian trade union confederations, along with the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Cgil) and the Union of Italian Workers (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Uil).
The focus of the 14th Cisl congress was the development of society and the economy at international, European and national levels. According to the general secretary, Savino Pezzotta- who was confirmed in his position (IT0010165F) at the congress - these developments demand a remarkable capacity of adjustment on the part of the trade unions. Globalisation poses new challenges and there is an urgent need to "fill in the relative democratic, participation and social control deficits", he said in his introductory speech. He underlined the need to reform and strengthen the main international trade union bodies - the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) must "play a concrete representative role and must act on behalf all workers in the world economic and political forums", while the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) must do the same at European level.
Regarding Italy, Mr Pezzotta stressed the role played by concertation between the government and the social partners on the main economic and social issues (IT0102277F), and the role that concertation has yet to play in future negotiations. He also reiterated the complete political independence of his organisation: "In a bipolar system, trade unions must not take any a preconceived position towards the government, but must base their judgment on the facts and on the decisions that the government takes." Industrial relations must always keep up with developments, said Mr Pezzotta, and there is thus a need for a new social pact that updates the July 1993 national intersectoral agreement, which regulates Italy's pay bargaining structure and incomes policy (IT9803223F).
Mr Pezzotta also faced up to Cisl's problems, stating that it must update its strategy and its organisational structure to meet the new state of affairs The "federalist" reform of the confederation, which was started a few years ago (IT9907122N), is seen as the correct solution to provide more resources to its local structures. The collective bargaining system should also be reviewed in the same direction. The current two bargaining levels - national/sectoral and company/local - should be maintained, but the decentralised level should be strengthened. The decentralised bargaining level should include pay bargaining and should defend purchasing power against inflation, which is often higher than that predicted by the government.
Referring to the challenge of competitiveness, which is the key issue stressed by the Confindustria employers' confederation (IT0104185F), Cisl is convinced that it is necessary to strength economic democracy: "On this aspect there are too many delays and too many who consider workers' participation more as a burden than an opportunity," said Mr Pezzotta.
The general secretary also discussed the delicate subject of flexibility, given that his confederation is prepared to discuss flexibility in employment contracts. He stressed that this is not a matter of making dismissals easier, but of developing consistent labour market policies and the use of all available tools that aim at improving recruitment and dismissal mechanisms.
One of the main concerns in Mr Pezzota's speech was Cisl's relationship with the other two main trade union confederations (IT9912137F). Looking at the Italian political context - which, after the recent general elections which brought a centre-right coalition to power, is characterised by deep divisions - Mr Pezzota said that the union movement must work in search of union unity. A new unified trade union should emerge from a genuine founding process, involving all trade union members, and not only the leaders. According to Cisl, this proposed new trade union will have to be "independent, pluralist, and associative - sharing a common strategy on concertation, on the primacy of collective bargaining over the law, on economic democracy and on workers' participation".
The general secretaries of the other two confederations made speeches at the congress, which also dealt with the trade union unity issue. Sergio Cofferati of Cgil, proposed a broad unified trade union, able to support the values of labour against the values of companies. He spoke of a new modern trade union linked to its heritage, drawing on the political and historical experiences of reformism of various strands - catholic, laical and marxist. Luigi Angeletti of Uil insisted on the need for a "strong and united trade union" and proposed new discussions on the current key items on the agenda - such as social security, the tax system, flexibility and illegal work - in order to overcome the current division among the confederations
The President of the Republic, Carlo Azelio Ciampi, and the new Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, sent messages to the congress, which were particularly important from the political point of view. Mr Ciampi underlined the "need for each social actor to be motivated by a strong sense of responsibility, so that the path of discussion and confrontation can foster the composition of different interests and the growth of the whole society". Mr Berlusconi sent a letter recalling that a commitment to dialogue with the social partners is one of the main concerns of his government, which considers "concertation among the social partners as one of the main components of the Italian Republic". In this regard, Mr Berlusconi also said that his programme includes a series of deep reforms which the government will achieve thanks to concertation with the social partners (IT0106188N).
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