JUNE 22, 2013: ITALY’S WORKERS PROTEST UNEMPLOYMENT

JUNE 22, 2013: ITALY’S WORKERS PROTEST UNEMPLOYMENT

Rome witnessed yesterday 22 June 2013 the biggest protest march by estimated 100,000 workers ang young people since Enrico Letta’s left-right broad coalition government took office in Italy 2 months ago.

The manifestations was organized by Italy’s three biggest unions CGIL, CISL and UIL to protest against the unprecendented 12 percent unemployment rate and all-time high level of youth under 24 joblessness. The unions criticized Letta for what according to them, the government’s lack of action on this urgent problem.

Susanna Camusso, leader of the country’s largest union CGIL in her speech before the flag-waving crowd said “We can’t accept these continuous promises that aren’t translated into decisions that give a change of direction,”

Luigi Angeletti, head of the UIL, said the country could not afford the piecemeal approach to policy adopted so far, especially when the ruling coalition is so fragile.

“In a country where the main concern is betting on how long the government will last, the message is that there is no more time for promises and announcements,” he said in Piazza San Giovanni, the traditional venue of left-wing protests.

The unions attacked zoomed in Indesit, a firm produsing electrodomestic products which planned to lay-off 1,400 workers in one of the most recent labor diputes.

Camusso said “Indesit isn’t in crisis, it just wants to use its profits to make investments in Turkey and Poland,”

Letta’s cabinet is due to unveil a package aimed at tackling youth unemployment next week, but Angeletti said the measures being mooted, such as tax breaks for firms hiring young people, were “useless”.

Italy’s economy has contracted in every quarter since mid-2011 – its longest post-war recession – and companies are steadily shedding staff.

Millions of Italians are so convinced they have no chance of finding work that they have given up looking altogether, meaning official figures severely understate the number of unemployed, according to national statistics office ISTAT.

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