DON'T BANK ON IT!

Today Italy has seen its first national banking strike in 13 years as bank employees protested against plans by the ABI [Italian Banking Association] to cancel their collective work contract a year before it officially ends. Banks here, as elsewhere, are under pressure to cut costs and that, their chief executives  have decided, means cutting jobs and changing contracts which offer workers a high degree of protection. The employees, naturally enough, want executives' high salaries to be cut instead and they want a guaranteed fair wage themselves.  Over 300,000 bank employees could be affected by the proposed contract change.

Nobody likes bankers much anywhere at the moment but I think most of us know that our problems are not the fault of the young bank clerk we usually see behind the counter. Just to make sure of that, though, demonstrating employees have been handing out flowers to the public in an effort to show that banks really do provide a public service.  Do we agree with that? I wouldn't bank on it!

I can't help feeling that the banking unions chose the date of their protest rather cleverly as tomorrow is a holiday [All Saints] and their members will get quite a nice little break.  There was no counter service on Tuesday afternoon due to union meetings either. But let us not be churlish -  who can blame anyone for wanting to extend a bank holiday?

50 SHADES A DAY?

As you may have read, last Friday some of Italy's private beach companies, in what became known as the sciopero degli ombrelloni or "parasol strike", staged a protest against new EU regulations which, from 2016, will allow for licence auctions. 

And this is what Simi the dog had to say about it:

THE DAY SICILY STOPPED

A transport strike of goods vehicles has more or less brought Sicily to a standstill today, with intercity roads and ports being blocked all over the island.  This, in turn, has caused the closure of some petrol stations and long queues outside those remaining open, while some pupils were unable to get to school and supermarkets quickly ran out of milk, bread and other fresh products.

The stoppage, called by Forza D'Urto,  a new movement made up of members of Autotrasportatori Aias, the Movimento dei Forconi [an agricultural workers' movement] fishermen, businesspeople from the agricultural sector, indignati and others, is intended to be a peaceful protest that will not hurt Sicilians but will make people all over Italy realise that something must be done about the current economic crisis.  The banners of trade unions or political parties will not be displayed during the protest.  The organisers say that the movement is for all Sicilians who are tired of bureaucracy and corruption of all kinds and who wish to reclaim their rights. Italy's main trade unions have, however, distanced themselves from the movement in statements issued today.

Members of the movement are particularly calling for a reduction in the excise duty on fuel, which has hit their industry and, consequently, Sicilian producers and exporters, hard and the strike is scheduled to last for five days, ending at midnight on Friday-Saturday night.

"HISTORY TEACHES EVERYTHING..."

"History teaches everything, including the future" - Lamartine

The wildcat strikes over the employment of foreign workers in the energy and construction industries in Britain have been reported fairly in Italy and opinion is divided here, too, with the President calling the strikes intolerable and the right-wing Lega defending them.

Here in Sicily there is much interest as a company from Siracusa is involved. Most people I have discussed the matter with react calmly but with some incredulity: " Don't the British realise they are in the EU and we have free movement of labour?" I must say that, looking at my own country from the outside, it would appear not. "But the company won a fair competition for the contract!" is another logical reaction.

Immigrant and foreign communities have been blamed for the economic situation of their host countries since time immemorial, partly because they are easily identifiable. There have also always been groups who, for their own purposes, play upon fear and encourage the worst instincts in all of us. This time, paradoxically, a Conservative leader has accused a Labour Prime Minister of doing just that, as witnessed at Prime Minister's Questions today.

In an effort to understand what is going on from all sides, I've been re-reading some chapters of Brenda [now Baroness] Dean's autobiography, Hot Mettle. Brenda Dean was the leader of the British print union SOGAT at the time of its bitter dispute with Murdoch's News International. A very interesting letter from Rupert Murdoch's solicitors was obtained and published by the Morning Star in 1985. It contained this sentence: "... if a moment came when it was necessary to dispense with the present workforce...... the cheapest way of doing so would be to dismiss employees while participating in a strike or other industrial action."

I usually leave conspiracy theories to others and I am aware that trade union legislation has changed. However, these strikes have not been supported by the unions and there does not, as far as I can judge, seem to be a racist element, so, in a time of recession, could it be that the group with a vested interest in inciting these strikes is not the obvious one?