Changes in leadership of Cisl

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Cisl, Italy's second largest trade union confederation, experienced internal difficulties in late 1998, which have now been overcome through a reshaping of its leadership. Sergio D'Antoni, the general secretary, has been given a third four-year term of office, though Cisl's statutes allow normally for only two such terms, while six new confederal secretaries have been appointed.

Recent problems among the leadership of the Italian Confederation of Workers' Unions (Confederazione Italiana Sindacati dei Lavoratori, Cisl), Italy's second largest trade union confederation, began in 1998. Raffaele Morese, deputy secretary general, expressed his disagreement with the project of a "great Cisl" (La Grande Cisl) involving other "social forces" and Christian-oriented organisations (IT9806174N) put forward by the general secretary, Sergio D'Antoni, while the majority of the members of the organisation supported Mr D'Antoni's proposal. At the same time, Mr D'Antoni, in order to implement his project, asked to be confirmed as secretary general for a further four-year term. According to Cisl's statutes, which foresee only two terms of office for leading officials, his mandate was due to expire at the end of 1999.

It was subsequently decided that an exception would be made from the statutes in Mr D'Antoni's case, allowing him to stand for secretary general at the next Cisl congress and to stay in office until 2003. Meanwhile, the deputy secretary general, Mr Morese, was appointed as undersecretary at the Ministry of Labour by the Prime Minister, Massimo D'Alema. His exit led to a reshaping of the Cisl confederal secretariat, with three other confederal secretaries - Luigi Cocilovo, Natale Forlani and Roberto Tittarelli- resigning in December 1998.

At a meeting on 16 December 1998, the Cisl general council appointed six new confederal secretaries to join the three remaining members of the old secretariat - Lia Ghisani, Giovanni Guerrisoli, and Graziano Treré. The six newly elected secretaries are:

• Pierpaolo Baretta, secretary general of the Cisl metalworkers' federation, who will be in charge of the service sector and of private services in general;

• Ermenegildo Bonfanti, secretary general of Cisl's healthcare and local authority workers' organisation, who will be in charge of worker participation issues, tax and tariffs policies and social security;

• Savino Pezzotta, secretary general of Cisl-Lombardy, who will be in charge of healthcare and welfare policies, socially disadvantaged areas, disabled people, schools and universities, research and coordination of the activities of the research centres;

• Raffaele Bonanni, secretary general of the building workers' union, who will be in charge of labour market problems, active labour market policies, problems related to Southern Italy, and problems concerning European funds;

• Giorgi Santini, secretary general of Cisl-Veneto, who will take care of constitutional reform and territorial, environment and energy policies; and

• Antonio Uda, secretary at Cisl-Sardegna, who will be responsible for administration, union recruitment, management of properties and coordination of union members.

Sergio D'Antoni is convinced that the entry of these new figures into the secretariat will allow "a reshaping of Cisl's organisation on the basis of strong and efficient structures" and that "the presence of a strong leading group guarantees the success of the reform process". Among the most important undertakings pointed out by Mr D'Antoni, presenting the outcomes of the December general council meeting to the press, is that there will be a major training programme for the new members of the confederal secretariat.