A-Infos (en) Italy, FDCA, Cantiere #45 - The stronger the class struggle develops, the lower the risk of war between states. (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Leaving a single category or industrial or work site alone means 
weakening the collective. - For a united and widespread wage battle, for 
the reduction of daily working hours, and for the introduction of an 
automatic mechanism to recover purchasing power relative to real 
inflation. - Cristiano Valente
In a clear and open challenge and provocation to the significance that 
May Day still holds for the trade unions and political organizations of 
the workers' movement internationally, the Meloni government approved 
yet another "decree on labor," published in the Official Journal on 
April 30, 2026, as Legislative Decree no. 62, which formally entered 
into force on May 1, 2026, known as the "May Day Decree." Bypassing the 
concept of a minimum hourly wage, the legislative text refers to a vague 
interpretation of "fair wage" as referring to the overall economic 
treatment defined by national collective bargaining agreements 
stipulated by the most representative trade unions and employers' 
organizations at the national level. However, this generic indication in 
no way corresponds to the "erga omnes" recognition of the economic 
component for all workers in a sector or specific work chain, but merely 
represents the precondition for the recognition of legal benefits 
provided to employers. Essentially, the law isn't saying, "It's illegal 
to underpay workers," but rather, "If you underpay workers, we won't 
give you tax breaks." Consequently, a company could theoretically 
continue paying very low wages, simply forgoing state benefits.

In essence, the problem of "pirate" contracts-those signed by shell 
associations to lower wages and reduce protections-is insurmountable, 
yet the contracts signed by CGIL, CISL, and UIL are still considered the 
only absolute benchmark for fair pay.

This approach, however, ignores the true spirit of Article 36 of the 
Constitution, confirming once again that it is power relations, not 
fundamental laws, that guarantee rights. The Constitution does not tie 
the concept of "fair pay" to the agreements of the major unions, but 
establishes a much simpler and more obvious principle: wages must 
guarantee workers and their families a free and dignified existence.

Unfortunately, it's increasingly common for contracts signed by major 
companies to fail to meet this standard, forcing the judiciary to 
intervene and correct pay slips, as has already happened in the private 
security and delivery sectors.

It's no coincidence that CISL leader Daniela Fumarola expressed "great 
satisfaction with the elements presented at the press conference by the 
Government and with Prime Minister Meloni's indication of the desire to 
make the measure approved today the first step in a social pact to boost 
wages, protections, and quality employment."

In fact, the decree merely reinstates and extends, by allocating 
approximately one billion euros to employers, certain tax provisions, 
some of which are already in place and whose effectiveness in supporting 
and generating new employment has proven largely flawed. These include 
bonuses for hiring or converting young people up to 35 into permanent 
contracts, granting companies a tax relief. Likewise, there is the tax 
bonus for hiring disadvantaged women, with higher caps for the so-called 
ZES (Special Economic Zones), which now extend to our entire troubled 
South: from Abruzzo to Molise, Campania, Basilicata, Sicily, Puglia, 
Sardinia, Marche, and Umbria.

Furthermore, the 5% substitute tax on salary increases resulting from 
contract renewals signed after January 1, 2024, is expected to be 
extended for workers with an employment income of up to EUR33,000. 
Furthermore, the 1% tax exemption on productivity bonuses and 
profit-sharing payments up to a total limit of EUR5,000 will be 
extended, effective January 1, 2028.

As well as the further extension, effective January 1, 2027, of the 
application of the 15% rate on increases and allowances for night work, 
public holidays, shift allowances, or overtime up to an annual limit of 
1,500 euros.

Furthermore, workers can choose to convert, in whole or in part, their 
performance bonuses and profit-sharing shares into company welfare benefits.

This option is governed by the Sbarra Law (Law No. 76 of May 15, 2025), 
which entered into force on June 10, 2025. The law implements Article 46 
of the Constitution on worker participation in business management, 
based on a popular initiative proposed by the CISL (Italian 
Confederation of Labour). By choosing to convert to welfare, workers 
benefit from a full tax and social security exemption for amounts up to 
EUR5,000.

The alleged increases in youth employment are not reflected in reality. 
Hundreds of thousands of young people, without concrete opportunities, 
are forced to emigrate. Furthermore, any wage increases are financed 
through general taxation. The consequence is obvious: we, as workers, 
pay for these minimal increases ourselves through taxes. This mechanism 
further reduces the resources allocated to public services and universal 
welfare. But not only that. To achieve a possible partial wage recovery, 
hardship and overtime work are effectively incentivized by providing a 
further tax reduction on these benefits, rather than offering shorter 
and less stressful hours and shifts, and more free time, starting with 
holidays, which have now become actual working days, especially in the 
service sector. Consider the world of large-scale retail trade (GDO) and 
logistics itself, sectors that are now routinely open and operating on 
holidays and May Day itself.

The real world of work and employment, however, presents a dramatic 
picture. The only segment experiencing growth is the over-50s, while 
young people and women remain severely disadvantaged. Women have some of 
the lowest employment rates in Europe, and many young people are forced 
to leave our country. Employment in industry continues to decline, and 
redundancy payments are resuming, while growth is concentrated in the 
service sector, especially tourism, where involuntary part-time work, 
over-eight-hour hours, and dire wages are on the rise. In the logistics 
and delivery sector, the judiciary is the only remaining barrier against 
multinationals like Deliveroo and Glovo, while union resistance 
structures are still failing to penetrate this sector, which also 
employs a primarily immigrant workforce.

Even in the traditional manufacturing sector, contractual increases have 
been marked by a real loss compared to inflation, starting with the 
metalworking sector, despite it remaining one of the most unionized 
sectors, as well as in the public sector, where increases agreed with 
the support of most of the most representative trade unions have been a 
third of real inflation.

The government's defeat in the constitutional referendum of March 22-23 
was a clear confirmation of the general malaise of the working class, 
particularly among the younger generations, who, rather than the 
supposed defense of the Constitution alluded to by reformist 
organizations, have expressed their dissent regarding their material 
conditions and the general context of the crisis and the new winds of 
war. The current situation, moreover, demonstrates a historical truth: 
capitalism is not a harmonious system, rationalizable and programmable, 
much less controllable in its development, as the entire capitalist 
system is unable to eliminate its internal conflicts, which sometimes 
explode into violence, of which war is an inevitable consequence.

For this reason, it is of utmost importance and imperative at this stage 
to renew the economic and political struggle against the government, one 
that sees the entire labor movement demand clear and unifying 
objectives, without dividing into individual categories. Leaving a 
single category or a single industrial or work site alone means 
weakening the collective. It further diminishes the strength and unity 
of the labor movement, weakening and diminishing the concept of class 
solidarity, the only element that can counter the economic and political 
power of the employers and the government. Of all governments.

If the urgency of a real wage increase, which is increasingly being 
formally expressed not only by union leaders but also by employers' own 
research bodies, is now clear, the demand for a universal automatic wage 
recovery tool must be placed on the union's agenda. This is far more 
than the signature-gathering initiatives for improbable popular laws on 
healthcare and public procurement that the current CGIL leadership has 
launched.

Moreover, such a wage recovery mechanism, albeit partial, is already 
partially included in the mechanics' contract, as a wage safeguard 
mechanism in the event of a contractual lapse or as an automatic 
adjustment based on real inflation. The May Day Labor Decree itself 
establishes, in the event of a contractual lapse of more than 12 months, 
an automatic salary adjustment of 30% based on the IPCA-NEI index.

Although not coincidentally, under strong pressure from Confindustria, 
the initial proposal that required companies to pay all arrears from the 
expiration date in the event of late contract renewal was eliminated.

Furthermore, the problem is that this index, the Harmonized Consumer 
Price Index Net of Imported Energy Goods, calculated by ISTAT and used 
for the renewal of national collective bargaining agreements, does not 
correspond at all to the real inflation index, since it excludes 
imported energy products such as natural gas, crude oil, and coal. The 
fraudulent justification given for this exclusion of imported energy 
prices is that energy prices are highly dependent on unpredictable and 
exogenous international factors. Therefore, their exclusion would create 
a more stable index that reflects real domestic inflation. In reality, 
at the first sign of war or conflict, as is currently the case with the 
closure of the Strait of Hormuz, gasoline prices automatically rise, 
significantly increasing the burden on mobility, one of the heaviest 
items on family budgets.

Alongside the reinstatement of an automatic inflation recovery 
mechanism, it would therefore be necessary to cancel the 2018 "Factory 
Pact," an inter-confederal agreement signed in agreement with 
Confindustria, under which the CGIL itself accepted the wage recovery 
indicated by the IPCA - NEI index, initially introduced in 2009 with the 
separate agreement of January 22, 2009, signed by the CISL UIL 
government and the employers' associations, not by the CGIL.

Likewise, a real battle for daily reductions in working hours is needed, 
completely eradicating the concept of flexible working hours over 
several weeks and the very use of overtime. Given this scenario and this 
political and trade union situation, the objective weakening of the 
Meloni government must be used not to relaunch new electoral alliances 
ahead of the 2027 general election, but to resume and broaden the 
struggles for unifying objectives such as wages, working hours, 
healthcare, education, transportation, pensions, and the fight against 
job insecurity. This will allow us to regain victory in the defense of 
the living conditions of the subaltern classes and to revitalize and 
strengthen the internationalist unity of workers worldwide, combining 
these struggles against incipient militarism and imperialist wars, and 
against the hunger, poverty, devastation, and death they impose.

http://www.alternativalibertaria.org
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en