Alysvisualart.com in the context of Stories of Migrant Women research 2018/2019 documented the rebellion of a consistent group of female migrant workers. In this report, not only trade union issues emerge but also the gender issue in both the private and social spheres, intersecting with the problem of migration flows, safety in the workplace, and the need for internationalist feminism that truly embraces all women in the world, protecting their individuality and rights and archiving the definition of ‘Western feminism’ forever.
Giving space to these women, we discover that they cannot even speak in the workplace, “everyone knows that we women cannot speak, many women in the factory are afraid”, they say. Despite so many difficulties, abuse and sexism, these women have the awareness and the strength to raise their heads and fight to claim their rights. With different nuances and in different ways, every woman can mirror – in part or in full – the words of these two women.
The workers entrust me with the testimony of exploitation by the factory bosses. The public statement on video and two newspaper articles will be published by Ecointernazionale.com in 2019.
Firts Article for EcoInternazionale
Second Article for EcoInternazionale
They brought the factory bosses to trial – summons decree and other materials from the revolutionary proletarian feminism / slai cobas union archive.
FACTS
On 14 November 2018, Montello Spa, Via Fabio Filzi, 5, 24060 Montello BG, in the person of its Managing Director Angelo Giavazzi, during the dispute concerning the employment of 17 female workers, who were already working in the Coop Eko-Var, Montello’s contractor, and who had not been transferred, following the change of contract, the new contractor Selection (despite a trade union agreement), in reply to a letter from the Slai cobas, on behalf of the Bergamo class union, he wrote, inter alia, (we reproduce the excerpt which we would like to bring to the attention of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, while we attach the entire letter sent by e-mail)
“At the meeting held on Saturday 3 November, there were, in addition to five workers, Mr Lauricella, President of the Board of Directors of the Selection cooperative, Mr Cataldo, a councillor of the Selection cooperative, as well as, on behalf of Montello, Mr Sancinelli, Mr Giavazzi, the councillor responsible for company safety and relations with the cooperative, and Mrs Muggiolu, the operations manager.
The workers present asked for clarification regarding the possibility of returning to work, through the Selection cooperative, at the Montello site.
On the Montello side, clarifications were asked about the membership declared by the workers, by means of leaflets, to the Revolutionary Proletarian Feminist Movement and by whom they supported this membership. This declared membership, which was also reported to the police, gave rise to legitimate concerns on the part of Montello and its security officers, in view of the public service activity carried out and the fact that waste treatment sites, such as the Montello site, are considered sensitive in terms of public safety…’.
Kind regards.
MONTELLO S.p.A.
The Managing Director
Angelo Giavazzi”
The “request for clarification regarding the workers” membership of the Revolutionary Proletarian Feminist Movement” is in open violation of the Workers’ Statute Art. 8, which states:
“It is forbidden for the employer, for the purposes of recruitment, as during the course of the employment relationship, to carry out investigations, even through third parties, into the political, religious or trade union opinions of the worker, as well as into facts that are not relevant to the assessment of the worker’s professional aptitude”;
Moreover – in the writer’s opinion – it is also in breach of the Constitution, in particular Article 3, the first part of which states:
‘All citizens have equal social dignity and are equal before the law, without distinction of sex, race, language, religion, political opinions, personal and social conditions’.
And in Article 21 which states in the first paragraph:
“Everyone has the right to express his or her thoughts freely by word, writing and any other means of dissemination”.
other means of dissemination’.
In the writer’s view, the blackmailing effect of Montello’s request on the five female workers and, consequently, indirectly on the 12 others awaiting recruitment is clear.
The illegal discriminatory action is combined with an obvious threat/intimidation action, with the announcement of a ‘report to the police’.
It should also be pointed out, purely by way of clarification, that the addition made by Montello: ‘… in view of the public service activity carried out and the fact that waste treatment sites, such as the Montello site, are considered sensitive in terms of public safety …’ is totally inappropriate, given that the leafleting which took place on 20 September 2003, well before the start of the dispute, was carried out by the company’s employees. – well before the start of the re-entry dispute – to which it probably refers, was not done by the workers, but by exponents, from outside the factory, adherents of the Revolutionary Proletarian Feminist Movement, and was carried out outside the Montello perimeter, far from the factory entrances, so it could never, ever create problems of “public safety”.
Therefore, this underlining is evidently only intended to accentuate the threatening and blackmailing action towards the workers, artfully creating a climate of fear.
Lastly, it should be pointed out that the statements made by the Montello management at the meeting with the five women workers were intended to discredit the Revolutionary Proletarian Feminist Movement Association, which is in fact represented as dangerous for the women workers, or for anyone who might belong to it, where the association is aimed precisely at defending women workers and women’s rights, making an absurd distinction between members of the association and defence or non-membership of the workplace.
As well as violating a constitutional right of free association for individuals and workers, this is an offence against the Revolutionary Proletarian Feminist Movement.
In view of the above, we call on the Public Prosecutor’s Office to take action against those responsible – Roberto Sancinelli, president of Montello Spa, and Angelo Giavazzi, managing director of Montello Spa – for this discriminatory action by Montello, in defence of the freedom of women workers.
The undersigned remains available to provide any information and documentation in its possession that may be useful.
On 2 December 2021 the second hearing of a “different” trial (which opened on 14 October) was held in Grumello del Monte (BG) before the Justice of the Peace. This time it is a trial of the bosses – the president and managing director – of the Montello factory in Bergamo, where in 2018 the women immigrant workers carried on numerous and strong struggles, winning a result on the payment of breaks and withdrawal of dismissals of women workers enrolled in the Slai cobas sc; and where this summer they returned to strike against the new cig that heralds dismissals, discrimination and worsening of working conditions.
During the 2018 battle, they openly attacked the Montello bosses’ attempt to divide and blackmail the workers into accepting a fraudulent agreement, even asking them whether or not they belonged to the Revolutionary Proletarian Feminist Movement (MFPR) – which had supported the workers’ struggle from the beginning – and reporting this alleged membership even to the police – as if being in the Mfpr was a “crime”!
The Mfpr made a complaint to the Public Prosecutor’s Office against this serious abuse, blackmail, which was rejected by the workers.
BUT
The judge did not want to put the Montello bosses on trial – but the bosses were not acquitted!
In the second hearing of the two bosses of Montello, Judge Davide Pozzi of Grumello del Monte (BG) did not even let the lawyers speak, nor did he file the new documents brought by Gianluca Vitale, defender, showing the legitimacy of the Revolutionary Proletarian Feminist Movement (MfPR) to have made the complaint; immediately this judge read the device and the motivation, already written, and then after less than 5 minutes he closed the hearing, with a “not to prosecute” against the bosses of Montello.
In order to say this, Judge Pozzi relied on a formal defect: failure to authenticate the signature of the Mfpr manager who had filed the complaint/complaint. A foothold was finally found… This formal problem could be detected from the first moment when the filing of the complaint/appeal was accepted, then the Montello owners were indicted, the trial was started, there was already the first hearing… ”
Today, however, suddenly, a ‘serious’ formal defect was detected; a defect that could very well have been remedied this morning given the presence at the hearing of the head of Mfpr.
It was clear that the judge, in reality, used this device to not enter into the merits of the complaint that had given rise to the trial: the threatening, blackmailing action made by the Montello bosses towards the workers of the Slai cobas sc, who were asked if they belonged to the Revolutionary Proletarian Feminist Movement or if they agreed with the action of the Mfpr (which had made solidarity initiatives during the struggle of the workers), as if this were an offence. …; a questurine action, intimidating, aimed at blocking a great and long struggle, and to impose a return to work under discriminatory conditions, exploitation, attack on safety and health, which still continue and are getting worse and worse. The judge did not want to go into the merits of the attack, a defamatory action against the Revolutionary Proletarian Feminist Movement, whose solidarity activities had even been reported to the Carabinieri.
But the Montello bosses did not win at all! Of course, the (in)bourgeois justice for this time wanted to save them from a conviction, but the bosses are not acquitted, but only “not judged”!
For this judge, a ‘stamp’ is worth more than a working condition made up of the risk of redundancies, irregular payments, hours of work standing and putting their hands in the ‘shit’ in the waste sorting activity, arms, legs, sick bodies, discrimination, threats, intimidation, to create divisions between workers and between workers and workers, etc. etc..
But all this disappears for a stamp…. This is the (in)justice at the service of the bosses; these are judges who already have the sentence in their pocket, the most convenient one, also so as not to work too hard…
They only show that they are pitifully trying to save themselves from the judgment of the workers, of the women.
The struggle of the Slai cobas – Montello workers, the mobilisation alongside the Mfpr workers will continue, because the problems remain and they are many.
RADIO INTERVIEW WITH MARGHERITA CALDERAZZI, SLAI COBAS TRADE UNION COORDINATOR AND ACTIVIST OF THE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTIONARY FEMINIST MOVEMENT (MFPR) – CLICK HERE