South Tyrol, 18 September 2015<\/a><\/p>\nThe growing openness to international markets, the new global division of labour and repeated reforms to labour market regulations constantly put them under strain. More often than not, they find themselves on the defensive rather than taking a proactive stance. The problems facing the trade union movement have been well known for some time. The proportion of pensioners among members now exceeds that of active workers; there is a difficulty in establishing a presence in growth sectors (the tertiary and service sectors), amongst non-manual professionals \u2013 particularly amongst the younger generations and women \u2013 that is to say, in new areas of production and amongst the new workforce. It is as though the trade union were constantly reproducing its original representative base, unable to speak a language capable of engaging with the new dynamics of work and the markets. To quote a prophetic book by Bruno Manghi from almost 40 years ago, the trade union \u2018declines as it grows\u2019. But at that time, in the late 1970s, the trade union enjoyed a large membership among the working population and a central role in national life. Today, that role appears severely diminished, and the risk is that it will find itself on a slippery slope where it \u201cdeclines as it shrinks\u201d. Symbolically, even before numerically. In other words, the problem is not solely, or even primarily, organisational in nature, but rather one of values. It concerns the ability of trade unions to analyse, interpret and articulate the (dis)articulations of work. In a word, it is about representing the diverse work cultures that have developed in the years following the demise of the \u2018working class\u2019.<\/p>\n
Community Media Research has launched a research project on labour issues. Following our analysis of the level of support for the Renzi government\u2019s Jobs Act, here we examine how the general public and workers in the North-East view the value of trade unions. In general, trade unions continue to play an important role. The proportion of people who believe that things would be worse without them (34.2%) is higher than those who see them as a hindrance (23.3%). However, the majority of people in the north-east (42.5%) consider them to play an insignificant role: trade unions neither add to nor detract from the life of the country. The situation varies considerably across the three regions. Whilst the inhabitants of Trentino-Alto Adige (79.9 per cent) and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (61.2 per cent) express clear hostility, among Venetians only a minority (17.9 per cent) have a negative view of trade unions. It is clear that the history of industrial development \u2013 which has been more pronounced in Veneto than elsewhere \u2013 accompanied by the trade union movement, plays a significant role in these perceptions. The picture changes slightly when we look specifically at employees. A comparison with a similar survey conducted in 2008 offers some insights. There has been a significant decrease (to 41.1 per cent) in the proportion of people who regard the trade union as providing protection and support (this figure stood at 51.7 per cent in 2008). However, given that the estimated proportion of unionised workers is around 25 per cent, the level of positive regard that trade unions still enjoy today is well above the actual level of membership.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, however, the number of people who believe that things in Italy would be better without trade unions is on the rise: 22.2 per cent (compared with 14.2 per cent in 2008). Thus, whilst the role of trade unions is seen as vague and of little significance by the majority of the population, among employees \u2013 who constitute the cultural sphere and the core constituency \u2013 opposition is growing. So much so that 45.1 per cent of respondents in the North-East (47.6 per cent of those in employment) do not believe that trade unions are effectively protecting workers\u2019 interests. Here too, residents of Trentino and South Tyrol (85.8 per cent) and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (72.6 per cent) express a particularly scathing negative view, which is less pronounced amongst Venetians (42.4 per cent), although it remains high. By contrast, only 15.7 per cent (18.2 per cent of those in employment) see trade unions as capable of protecting workers, particularly among residents of Veneto (17.6 per cent; 8.3 per cent in Trentino-Alto Adige; 2.4 per cent in Friuli-Venezia Giulia). Among these, the vast majority regard the confederations (CGIL-CISL-UIL) as their main point of reference (90.1 per cent). However, it is when considering the negative responses that interesting aspects emerge. The reason is not linked to the trade unions being useless or, as is often claimed, to the fact that they defend pensioners or those who already have a job. If anything, they are criticised for failing to understand the changes that have taken place in the world of work (40.1 per cent) and for operating in a manner akin to a political party (41.5 per cent). Thus, on the one hand, there is an inability to adequately analyse the transformations in the labour market and the professions. This aspect is emphasised above all by men in their thirties, entrepreneurs and those who identify as centre-left. On the other hand, there is the perception that trade unions are overly entangled in the dynamics of the political arena, thereby losing their distinctiveness. This view is particularly shared by women, younger people, manual workers and those who do not identify with any political party.<\/p>\n
Difficulties in analysing the transformations taking place in the world of work and business, and the union\u2019s alignment with political actors, are the factors undermining the trade union\u2019s credibility. They render it insignificant in the eyes of the majority of the population and unpopular amongst a significant proportion of workers themselves. But, given the increasing fragmentation of the world of work, would a decline in the trade unions\u2019 influence and their cultural marginalisation really benefit the country\u2019s development?<\/p>\n
Daniele Marini<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Il sindacato ha un problema che non \u00e8 legato esclusivamente al numero e alla composizione degli iscritti, ma al valore a esso viene attribuito, al ruolo che occupa nella societ\u00e0…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7685,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[9,99,116,117,50],"class_list":["post-2703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dicono-di-noi","tag-futuro","tag-lavoro-2","tag-rappresentanza","tag-sindacati","tag-societa-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/community.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12994,"href":"https:\/\/community.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2703\/revisions\/12994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/community.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/community.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"sindcati](\"http:\/\/www.communitymediaresearch.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/sindcati-3-400x187.jpg\")
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