If the task of the union is to promote employment, it can be said that Alitalia’s pilots-trade unionists have achieved their objective. At least for themselves. In fact, Ita Airways, the “new” company owned by the Mef which has inherited part of Alitalia’s business, despite having only 2,141 employees, 20% of Alitalia’s workforce, is hiring new Alitalia pilots on layoffs, especially among union members or reported, not to say “recommended” by the unions. And to fill up are the confederal ones, Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl and Uiltrasporit, together with Ugl, the right-wing acronym that is now considered the fourth confederal union.
The batch after the “union pax”
The batch of trade unionists, as anticipated in Il Sole 24 Ore of 23 December, has been taking place for a few days, some have already signed the letter of employment, others are taking the courses that are a prelude to enrollment in the new company, called Occ (Operator conversion course). This is happening after the “union pax” signed last December 2 between Alfredo Altavilla, the number one of Ita wanted by Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and the confederal unions, with whom there had been a secret negotiation on the new national collective labor contract for air transport. The contract was signed only by the “3 + 1” confederal unions, precisely the acronyms that are now rewarded with the hiring of their members.
The cigs in Alitalia
The first to sign the contract were Fabrizio Cuscito, national secretary of Filt-Cgil, and Ivan Viglietti, the same position in Uiltrasporti. They are pilots, first officers, even if they rarely go to the yoke. They were in cigs in Alitalia, like all their colleagues not employed by Ita who, since 15 October, have been in cigs at zero hours because Alitalia no longer flies. A well-paid cigs, because the air transport solidarity fund, at the INPS, supplements the modest cigs check that is due to all workers in other sectors (just over a thousand euros gross per month) with a sum that brings the net to 80% of the actual salary received up to 2019, before the Covid crisis that knocked down the paychecks of air transport.
Cuscito (CGIL), Viglietti (Uil) and Consalvi (Ugl) already hired
Well, from the beginning of this week, Cuscito and Viglietti joined Ita, hired by Altavilla, as did Marcello Consalvi, Ugl driver manager. The times of the hard confrontation with the former FCA manager who, at the take-off of Ita on October 15, did not want unionized employees (at least so he said) are behind us. And since Ita resumed taking command courses, to make them the first commanding officers, Alitalia had not done them for ten years, there are those who suspect that the newly hired union leaders will soon be able to enter command courses. In this case, their salary would make a big leap.
The position of Ita
Ita says that “it does not confirm or deny the names for privacy” and that it assumes for reasons of “operation”. The company states that “it does not discriminate between trade unions”. But the problem, for many workers, is another: in this way the unions are given improper power, that of piloting “hiring.” Those who are not registered or do not participate in the power games are cut off or otherwise penalized, both in hiring and in the possibility of making a career, command courses, car transfers, etc. In the old Alitalia this was the practice. Once upon a time it dominated the Anapc, the professional union that has the largest number of members among the pilots. Behind the operation that Ita is doing with the unions there is a shift in the balance in favor of the confederal ones. Ita says it is hiring for “operational” reasons, that is, because it needs pilots.