Porto Garibaldi. Yet another wave of discontent has erupted among many now nearly deceased former employees of the "Servizi Ospedalieri" (Hospital Services) at the former Porto Garibaldi site. Following the closure of the industrial laundry facility at the beginning of last year, which placed approximately 115 workers on temporary layoffs (the number has now dropped to over 70), with approximately thirty reassignments at the Ferrara site, a few others at other group plants (e.g., Lucca), and the remainder through voluntary redundancy schemes, "operations" have arisen in recent days that have once again caused turmoil among the workers. According to Vittorio Battaglia, Deputy General Secretary of the Ferrara-based Femca Cisl, they will be laid off at the end of the year when the layoffs expire.
The union dispute and the involvement of the institutions, which unsuccessfully attempted to persuade Servizi Ospedalieri and its parent company, Manutencoop, to reconsider their decision to close Porto Garibaldi at the end of 2013, led to the declaration of intent that during the two years of extraordinary redundancy payments, the company would seek redeployment for all employees. "It is no coincidence," Battaglia explains in a press release also signed by the workers, "that in May, but with a strange sense of urgency, the approximately 70 employees still on redundancy were offered the possibility, starting next year, of all being redeployed to the Ferrara site on a part-time basis at 50%. One party accepted, while another felt the proposal was inconsistent with the possibility of working not too far from home and at a decent wage. But above all, it faced an uncertain outlook, in a plant that, in order to guarantee long-term employment for all, must maintain current market conditions as best as possible."
"A realistic proposal, however, up to that point," adds the Femca secretary, "since, despite the company having attempted, including by relying on external consultants, to find alternative employment to the laundry sector in or near the lagoon city, this has not been possible or feasible to date."
But these days, a surprise awaits. There are plans to open a laundry business within the year in Porto Garibaldi, in the same location previously rented by Servizi Ospedalieri. It's a cooperative of company employees who are setting up their own business. "Seen from the outside," Battaglia comments, "it's a more than positive development, but upon closer inspection, it gives rise to different interpretations. This is also because this cooperative will be staffed by Porto Garibaldi staff, many of whom have already been relocated to the Ferrara site since the beginning. This will therefore likely not help the re-employment of those who will currently be laid off next year, having already opted for redundancy a month ago, but under different conditions, and therefore without this new development. Of course, this is a matter of free initiative and free enterprise on the part of those willing to risk their own resources (but there will be some help), but in a "tangled" situation like the management has been since Servizi Ospedalieri announced the closure of Porto Garibaldi, many workers are wondering how it's conceivable that, in the end, those who already have their jobs secured are "granted" this alternative, while those with no prospects have no future employment protection whatsoever. Formally, this is a more than legitimate operation, but politically and socially, there are some minor doubts." fairness with respect to the unexpected novelty (and the reserve in its determination), where it seems that no one knows but almost everyone knows… it comes naturally”.
"A laundry," Battaglia concludes, "that is being built on the ashes of the one that closed, a laundry that is still staffed by almost all "permanent" employees of Servizi Ospedalieri, a laundry that will occupy part of the space of the old one and... that will not offer re-employment opportunities for many workers from Comacchio and Porto Garibaldi. A business that could also put other workers employed in competing laundries in difficulty. The market, even in this sector, is at an all-time low and, whether it's linen rental for hospitals, nursing homes, tourism, and workwear, unfortunately, does not allow further growth for new businesses. The doubt is that there is a desire to increasingly concentrate a business oligarchy limited to a few companies, with their own name or a "synonym," without concern for the workers who are or have already lost their jobs. The important thing, for some, is to protect only those who are already protected. When there is little bread on the table, it is reserved only for friends of friends. If the others are starving, it matters little." the important thing is to give work to those who are already working, selling the result as the creation of... new jobs".
