On 17 October 1997, one million workers in Italy's "artisanal enterprises" took part in a general strike led by the Cgil, Cisl and Uil trade unions in protest against the breakdown in negotiations for the renewal of the industry's collective agreements.
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On 17 October 1997, one million workers in Italy's "artisanal enterprises" took part in a general strike led by the Cgil, Cisl and Uil trade unions in protest against the breakdown in negotiations for the renewal of the industry's collective agreements.
A one-day general strike of over one million workers in "artisanal enterprises" - small-scale crafts and trades businesses - took place on 17 October 1997, with a main demonstration being held in Vicenza. Giorgio Santini, the head of the Cisl trade union confederation's Veneto region, Pino Rossetti, general secretary of the Uilta-Uil federation and Sergio Cofferati, general secretary of the Cgil confederation all took part in the demonstration.
This strike action was called by the three main union confederations - Cisl, Cgil and Uil- in protest at the failure to conclude the negotiations for the renewal of the sector's collective agreements. The artisanal contracts which have run out and have not yet been renewed include those for the metalworking, textiles, food and beverage, graphical, ceramics, wood and goldsmithery sectors.
Cgil, Cisl and Uil claimed in a press release on 17 October, in which they announced the strike, that the artisanal employers' associations are failing to conclude the negotiations for political reasons and not owing to disagreements with the trade unions' requests. In fact, these requests - say the trade unions - are less demanding than those already agreed upon with the Confindustria employers' confederation and its affiliates for the contracts of the corresponding industrial sectors. According to the unions, the employers' resistance in the artisanal sector arises because they intend to put pressure on the Government in order to obtain legislative interventions in favour of their companies.
Cgil, Cisl and Uil take this situation very seriously, as they see the blockage in the negotiations as an attempt to reopen discussions on the agreements which regulate the industrial relations system in the artisanal sector and, in their opinion, this increases the risk of failure in the negotiations that are underway for a complementary National Pension Fund (Fondo Nazionale di Previdenza) for artisanal workers, and over apprenticeship reform.
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (1997), Over one million artisanal workers go out on a general strike, article.
