This article was originally published in the Italian Marxist journal Falcemartello (May 11, 2004) under the title "On 6 May an agreement was signed between the Government and Trade Unions on the future of Alitalia - The agreement is a hoax to end the workers' struggle."
On Thursday, May 6, agreement was reached in the negotiations between unions and the government to ensure Alitalia's survival. "Agreement reached in extremis for Alitalia" and "Alitalia will survive!" were some of the more significant headlines in the national press the following day.
The unions too expressed great enthusiasm for an agreement they consider to be no less than "half a miracle" (Guglielmo Epifani, CGIL Secretary-General). But, is that really the case? Is the agreement a good result for the 22,000 Alitalia workers?
In the last six months, Alitalia workers have clearly shown their ability to mobilise widely and with effect. As in Melfi, they proved determined and united. Flight and airport personnel, pilots and mechanics have moved together in complete unity, proving that nothing can be decided or implemented without them.
The agreement signed on May 6 (see below: Terms of the agreement) does not really serve to defend the workers. Rather, it merely allows the government just days before European and local elections to present itself as having "saved" thousands of jobs. It also gives the union leaders a welcome breathing space following a period when their behaviour has largely destroyed their reputations.
This latter point is graphically demonstrated by the events that took place in the days before the agreement was signed. On April 30 the union leaders were widely criticised by workers at the majority of airports, most notably at Rome Fiumicino. This was because overnight they had accepted the latest in a long series of government diktats without consulting the workers. The government had declared it was available to restart negotiations only if the strikes were suspended.
In fact, picket lines were removed, but not because the union leaders had convinced the workers. On the contrary, these leaders showed that they had no interest in the workers' opinions and simply abandoned the pickets in the very moment the government was sending them "precettazione" orders. [In disputes involving state owned companies, the authorities can order the suspension of strikes by law. If these orders - "precettazione" - are not obeyed, workers can be sacked and even arrested. It is a law that goes back to the Fascist period, a useful law for the bosses that has never been removed from the statute books].
An agreement to postpone the struggle
The agreement signed by the unions is not in the workers' interests. None of the workers' demands have been met. None of the aims of the struggle have been achieved. What is even worse is that while the workers are prepared to continue the struggle to defend their jobs, no one can say whether they have a future.
Bonomi's (Alitalia's former president) project was intended to start with 1100 redundancies and the outsourcing of 2100 jobs, the aim being to achieve savings of 58 million euros. The unions have always regarded that as optimistic. They calculated more that 6000 workers would have to go to save that amount of money. The first version of the plan had proposed to sell many of the support services to other companies. For example, Alitalia Airport was to be sold to a German company, with the loss of a further 1500 jobs. The final objective was the loss of all 10,000 airport workers. The aim of the plan was to develop a "lean" company only employing flight personnel (l'Unità, May 4th 2004).
The industry as a whole is in crisis
The abandonment of Bonomi's plan does not signify a major change in the government's strategy, as the ideas on which the project was based remain the only viable solutions in a free market economy. This is the path the bourgeoisie intends to follow by all necessary means. If we accept the rationale of the marketplace, companies can only survive by lowering costs and raising revenues. This is the position of both the bosses and the union leaders, and it means that the only way forward is downsizing, sacking, privatising and outsourcing.
Most international airlines currently show losses on their balance sheets. Those showing signs of better health, such as of the Dutch company KLM (with which Alitalia was planning to merge a few months back) or the German national airline Lufthansa, are doing so after suffering heavy losses in 2003, which led to unprecedented downsizing and the loss of thousands of jobs.
Life is not much better for the celebrated "low cost" airlines like Ryanair and EasyJet. These companies earn their profits by the exploitation of their small numbers of flight and airport personnel and saving on maintenance costs through outsourcing. But they are having a hard time too. In fact, their share values have plunged by 20% and losses of 40 million euros are forecast for the first six months of the year. So what can they do to become more competitive?
The bosses' plans won't change
Nine different unions signed the May 6 agreement. Only the CUB did not, as it had not been allowed to take part in the negotiations. The aim of the agreement is to make Alitalia more attractive to predatory capital, doing to Alitalia what has been already done to the companies mentioned above. That is what recapitalisation means, to get investment from banks and industrial and financial speculators, allowing them to do whatever they want with Alitalia's state-owned assets and, of course, with the workers and their families.
Investors will only pour money in if they see the chance to earn quick profits. Therefore, the new CEO will have to offer them an opportunity they cannot refuse. So the management will push ahead with their plans whether the unions agree or not, hoping to divide the unions and the workers, as they have managed to do a number of times in the recent past.
The choice of Giancarlo Cimoli as the new CEO is no accident. In his years at Ferrovie dello Stato (the state-owned national railway company), Cimoli fired 50,000 staff and hired 20,000 low-paid temporary workers. Every day we see the consequences of Ferrovie dello Stato's so-called "revival": rocketing ticket prices, poor safety, exploitation of the workers, and a lack of care for the passengers. [The very day we translated this article we read of a train crashing into a house on the Genoa-Turin line. Maintenance had been carried out by contractors just one month earlier.]
The elections will force management to hold back on their plans for a while. Then there will be the summer peak in the number of flights. But by autumn we will be back in the real world and the bosses will be singing the same tune again, though probably played at a different rhythm. This is clearly expressed in the pages of Il Sole 24 Ore (the official newspaper of Confindustria, the bosses' organisation) on May 7: "There is no such a thing as a magic wand, so recapitalisation and social peace, which the unions have signed up to to avoid bankruptcy, are just the first steps in a mission challenging the very limits of what is possible (…) In order to ensure a future for Alitalia, the courage must be found to do what has not been done before: to dramatically cut costs and increase productivity. Pilots, stewards and hostesses have to roll up their sleeves and fly more, and the number of airport personnel must to be reduced, as it is excessive."
There is one point that the agreement is very clear about: the company's property structure needs to be discussed. Private enterprise and capital will have the doors opened wide for them through the break-up of the company, putting an end to the idea of an airline as a public asset.
State owned but under workers' control
Alitalia is a state-owned company where workers do their jobs with a degree of dignity. Mismanagement and waste are not the fault of the workers, but due to managers and union bureaucrats who have done whatever they liked for many years. Every time anything has been done to help the company it has been the workers who have done it. We are constantly told that Alitalia belongs to everyone, but the workers themselves have never had a say in how it is run. Workers' problems cannot be solved by slashing jobs or privatising support services. The problems facing workers at Alitailia (or Fiat, Parmalat or any company, either state-owned or private) can only be solved by the removal of the bosses' control. These enterprises need to be managed not according to the rule of profit but on the basis of the needs of society as a whole, under the direct control of the workers.
Alitailia is 67% state-owned. The outcome of the partial or complete privatisation of other companies is clear for all to see. Service has worsened, prices have soared, safety levels have fallen and mass sackings have taken place. Only the capitalists profit from such a situation, especially those who target bankrupt companies in order to buy them up on the cheap.
In order to defend the jobs of Alitalia workers, working hours must be cut without loss of pay, temporary workers must be given permanent jobs and the company must once again be regarded as a public asset and not as a source of profit for the bosses.
The workers have proved to be brave and determined, and only this has prevented the usual sell-out by the union leaders. But, to achieve what is necessary the workers must take the management and leadership of the negotiations back into their own hands. The union leaders showed themselves to be unreliable when they shamefully accepted the conditions to restart negotiations on April 30, thereby assisting in undermining the workers' struggle. At the press conference after the agreement was signed, Vice-Premier Gianfranco Fini declared there is an "unwritten framework condition" in the agreement to the effect that the unions are committed to guarantee social peace and the suspension of any form of protest. (Il Sole 24 Ore, May 7th 2004).
In order to ensure that there is no repetition of such episodes in future, the workers must elect their own representatives in negotiations and manage every step of the negotiations themselves. Negotiation committees must to be elected in every airport by all the workers, whether unionised or not. These committees should be nationally coordinated and sit alongside the union representatives during negotiations.
In these circumstances, the struggle should also not have to be confined to the Alitalia workers alone, but would include all airline workers and transport workers in general. Working conditions in public transport, the railways, freight lines and so on have suffered severe attacks in recent years. In all cases the objective has been to privatise the services (and their profits) while socialising the losses, with the workers in the industries bearing the cost. Only by combining their forces can the workers fight back effectively against the government and managers, and overcome the cowardice of the union leaders. Only by maintaining their militancy can the workers ensure a real future for Alitalia, an Alitalia which is state-owned, controlled by its workers and managed according to the transport needs of society as a whole.
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The terms of the agreement
Facing the emergency with a perspective of business continuity, by approving the 2003 balance sheets (that is, not allowing Alitalia to go bankrupt).
Defining a new industrial plan with a growth perspective for the Alitalia group according to the business model followed by European competitor companies, thereby coherently reshaping the company structure and organization.
Recapitalisation carried out with market criteria, thus enabling private capital to flow in owing to a new property scheme.
Government ownership (which is crucial in the first steps of the transition) will only be involved, at any level, according to sound economic criteria and full compliance to national and European laws.
In order to obtain the above, the government will dismiss the Board and nominate a new CEO, with full powers, supported by a slimmed-down Board.
The signatories agree to jointly verify the progressive realisation of what has been set out, taking into account crucial sector-specific points. The signatories consider it appropriate that in subsequent discussions between the company and the unions, methods will be found to ensure an active, responsible and affirmative role for the unions and professional associations in the definition of the new business plan and its application.
May 2004
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