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In October 2000, employees of a McDonald's franchise in Florence went out on strike in protest against an alleged "intimidatory climate" - the first time that industrial action has hit the restaurant chain's Italian operations. The strike was followed by a similar protest at a McDonald's restaurant in Rome.
October 2000 saw the first strike by workers at a McDonald's restaurant in Italy. There are five McDonalds outlets in Florence, three of which are managed directly by McDonald's Italia and two are franchises, and the strike hit the franchised restaurant in Via Cavour, in the city's historic centre. The restaurant has about 30 employees (mainly university students who work part time), and some workers have long been alleging intimidatory actions on behalf of the restaurant franchisee, in particularly towards unionised workers. Some workers who claim to have suffered from repeated maltreatment had referred their cases to magistrates.
The October strike was sparked by a meeting over the conclusion of a possible company collective agreement negotiated by the restaurant franchisee and by the provincial-level representatives of the food and catering workers' trade unions affiliated to the three main union confederations - Filcams-Cgil, Fisascat-Cisl and Uiltucs-Uil. The franchisee, Stefano Govoni, stipulated that, in order for him to sign the collective agreement, all the individual pending law suits had to be considered as terminated and, in all the previous suits where the magistrates had issued judgments, the workers had to accept only 10% of the amount of money that the company had been obliged to pay them.
An assembly of McDonald's workers refused this proposal. In the days following the assembly, the workers alleged that the franchisee was applying considerable pressure to make them accept the proposed agreement. In order to protest against this alleged "intimidatory climate", the workers called a strike for 8 October 2000. About 30% of the workforce took part in the strike, which led to a demonstration in the centre of Florence and apparently received considerable public support.
The workers concerned have publicly expressed fears of adverse treatment or dismissal for participating the strike. Trade union representatives have alleged that there is a intimidatory climate, claiming that the franchisee "wants to apply the American working model, thereby making life difficult for unionised workers. The pressure put by the franchisee on the workers has led some of them to ask if they would have been dismissed if they had taken part in the strike."
Alfredo Pratolungo, the McDonald's Italia external relations manager, said that: "franchisees are oblige to respect labour law, rules and regulations. As regards what has happened in Florence, the company is collecting information in order to assess the franchisee's behaviour". The restaurant franchisee, Mr Govoni, referring to Mr Pratolungo' s comments, said that: "over the years my relationship with the workers has always been based on correctness, and I have dealt constructively with the local trade union organisations more than once".
The case has become more political, within interventions from local and national governmental authorities and trade union bodies. Michele Gesualdi, the president of the Florence provincial government (and a former leader of the Cisl trade union confederation) has met separately with provincial union representatives from Filcams (Paolo Mugnaini), Fisascat (Carlo di Paola) and Uiltucs (Pietro Baio), and with national representatives of McDonald's (the human resources manager, Vanni Ceccardi, and the operations manager, Amedeo Avenale). The talks have been aimed at finding out if it is possible to start negotiations among the parties in order to overcome the existing tension between the Via Cavour workforce and the franchisee. At national level, the Minister of Labour Francesco Salvi, has met both the workers concerned, during a political demonstration in Florence, and McDonald's representatives at the Ministry of Labour. The latter gave assurances as to the full respect of laws, agreements and workers' rights on behalf of the multinational company.
After the Florence strike, protests by McDonald's workers spread to Rome. On 1 November 2000, workers at a McDonald's restaurant on the capital's main ring road went on strike spontaneously, sparked by a reproof issued by the manager to some cashiers. The strike had not been organised in advance and 18 workers out of 24 participated. The accusations made by the workers at this franchise are similar to those levelled by the Florence staff: "inhuman working conditions, a ban on drinking or going to the bathroom during working time, timed work tasks, non-paid overtime hours and notification of shifts just with a day's notice". The franchisee of this McDonald's restaurant, Francesco Fuga, said that up until now he had not realised the existence of any problem, and he has promised to take up the issue with those responsible for personnel management.
The Florence and Rome incidents attracted particular attention because the presence of McDonald's in Italy had so far not posed any industrial relations problems. Indeed, the US-based restaurant chain is a very important employer in Italy, having opened some 280 restaurants over the past 15 years, employing about 10,000 workers (the number varies because of high turnover) on monthly pay varying between ITL 750,000 (EUR 387) for a part-time job (18-20 hours per week) and ITL 1.3 million (EUR 671) for a full-time job. The meat for the hamburgers is produced in Italy (at Modena) by Europe's largest slaughterhouse, and is also exported to Denmark, Greece and Cyprus. McDonald's food packaging for the whole European market is produced by an Italian company, owned by Antonio D'Amato, the current president of the Confindustria employers' confederation. McDonald's restaurants are either managed directly by the company's representatives or run as franchises, but in any case the franchisees are obliged to respect a series of rules in order to guarantee the uniformity of McDonald's products and image.