Where is the Police?
Hands off the warehouse worker!
I work at SDA in Rome.
We are from Milan. From TNT.
Castello Bocca d'Adda, Lodi Province.
Cassina de' Pecchi.
The cooperative has changed.
They haven't paid me either for July, nor for August.
They also didn't pay my holiday pay.
We went to the Cobas.
Now the COBAS are writing a letter to the cooperative.
If they don't pay, we'll also go on strike.
We've had it with this slavery.
We all came here to help support the 24 sacked workers from IKEA.
DIELLE (company) is shit! - Yeah, I know!
DIELLE is shit! - Yeah, I know!
I've worked in Italy for ten years. With the cooperatives it's always a difficult story.
With the COBAS things are alright now. The COBAS has some power now.
They enforce the law now. So we are fine, everything is good.
When did this struggle in the logistics sector start?
About five, six years ago. I can't recall the exact date.
But an exemplary struggle has started
for the defence of the dignity of workers, of the exploited.
'No Austerity' has been showing solidarity, right from the start.
We are from the "Antagonistic Network of Piacenza".
A network that is politically independent and that tries to connect people
who believe that the time for mediation is over
and that the time has come for an antagonistic, combative approach,
- it's the only way that gets results.
For more than two years we've been following developments at IKEA.
Initially we also managed to get a first victory.
We chased away one of the three cooperatives.
Six months ago IKEA started their counter-attack against us.
But we don't give up.
Hands off the warehouse worker!
In order to win this battle
we have to ditch the fear.
They try to scare us with their riot-vans...
their blackmailing and dismissals.
We're not struggling for 1 Euro more per hour anymore.
We're struggling because we've understood that this country is ruined
if the working class does not hold its head up.
The slave conditions will be extended to everyone.
On this square, in these days, in these months,
in front of all these factories, the migrant workers
and the few Italian workers who have joined them
have shown that it's possible to win.
And it isn't by chance that this movement spreads.
That dozens of people are joining the union every day.
People have understood that if we don't struggle, there won't be a future.
Strike today! Strike tomorrow!
They tell you to stay on one spot and work with your head bowed.
The whole day.
We're not allowed to talk amongst ourselves. They saw it as wasting time.
They said we wouldn't meet the performance targets they wanted.
We didn't just work, we worked at break-neck speed.
Overtime wasn't voluntary, it was compulsory.
And whoever refused to work overtime was punished.
We work like slaves.
We don't even manage to earn the 800 - 900 Euro we need to survive.
At my job they called people to work, lined them up at the top without clocking in or pay
to stand there and watch. Two, three hours. Without pay.
Whenever they needed someone they would call: "Hey you, come here now!"
Those guys in front of the gate, they wait there from half past four, five o'clock.
They let people in at seven, at eight, at nine o'clock.
There are people who wait five hours to get in and to get work.
Or you wait for five hours and they send you home.
They say: "Nope, we've got no work for you today".
But this isn't the only problem. They treat people like cattle.
They shout at you. They install two security guys
with these big muscles, to intimidate people.
They shout, the whole night: "Get going! Work faster!"
If you have to call in sick
and then return to work, straight after you've been ill,
Then they cut your wages and give you the hardest work to do.
Because you called in sick.
They buy one or two people, the ones who are the best at talking.
Those two eat well, all the others eat shit.
We have seen disastrous working conditions.
Of hard physical exploitation.
A big proportion of workers have ruined their backs
after a few years of heavy lifting
especially in ergonomically bad positions.
This turns them into 'squeezed lemons' for the cooperatives,
which they then have to get rid of
We have seen many cases
of people who have been physically ruined by this work.
They don't get compensation, nothing.
This heavy lifting and drudgery
has killed my back.
I have two ruptured discs.
At the end they kick you out, like an animal.
We are oppressed, underpaid, in largely insecure positions.
The wage never comes. No one's bothered.
They do what they want. We work 12-hour shifts...
and they don't even pay us for four hours.
We don't get christmas pay. We get 60 Euro per day, if we work.
If you're sick, you don't get paid at all.
You want to take a day off, you won't get paid.
Holiday doesn't exist.
They pay 1,200 Euro. 60 Euro per day. We work more than twelve hours per day.
I have a family, three children. I pay rent.
I come here, they exploit me, they threaten me.
If they want you to come, they whistle at you like a dog. I'm not a dog.
They shout: "Hey, you!"
What's that supposed to mean?! Am I a dog? They squeeze you like lemons.
They don't let us talk.
We can't move from the same spot.
There are payslips like hers, that say she has to return 15 Euro to the state!
Or they refuse to give people work, because they didn't want to work overtime.
Or because they didn't want to work weekends. They let you
sit at home for one, two weeks without work and say openly: This is your punishment.
One of the supervisors, an old guy, made passes at the young women who are my age...
twenty, twenty-one year old women.
And he told them, in particular to the Moroccan women:
"I like Moroccan women. You are all so slutty."
If you didn't manage to meet the targets he said:
"Either you meet the target or I shove it up your arse!"
He told a workmate: "You are the next one to suck my dick."
He tried to invite women out for dinner...
Some were okay with it, others weren't.
If a worker didn't like it
he didn't give her any work or forced her to work at a different place.
At some point we got fed up with it.
Since 2008 there have been struggles in the logistics sector in Italy...
in the warehouses, where working conditions
have become unbearable.
Recently the struggles in logistics have spread all over the country.
Initially they took place in Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and in the Veneto.
It wasn't by chance that they were all located in the Po valley.
The region is of major importance for the logistics sector in Italy.
It isn't a coincidence that the big logistics companies are located there.
From there they can easily distribute goods to the whole of Italy.
The ports of Genoa and Venice are not far.
And therefore the routes to North-Europe, North-Africa and the Middle-East.
It is a strategical location.
The struggles, which take place all over Italy today
are essentially driven forward by the logistics workers.
I think there are objective, and not just subjective reasons for it.
The objective reasons are related to the relatively new economic sector,
which emerged with the concentration process in retail and distribution.
With the emergence of the huge retail complexes in the suburbs.
A sector which employed mainly young and migrant workers.
They had the clear goal to drive down wages and to undermine existing collective contracts.
What's special about the logistics sector, but also tourism and the health sector
or cleaning sector, is that they use so-called cooperatives.
So-called, because they have nothing to do with the origins of the cooperative idea.
The legal form of the cooperatives allows them to increase the exploitation of the workforce
and to avoid the legal rights inscribed in traditional work contracts...
for example sick-pay.
It also allows the main contractor to pretend that they don't know that
labour rights and contracts have been breached.
We are here to strike
against a cooperative, which has been granted a contract by SDA.
They won the contract
because they put forward the cheapest offer.
Obviously, they had links to the right people and paid a bribe.
A new co-operative came. We joined the COBAS.
We live in a democratic country, everyone can become a member of whatever organisation.
They stopped giving us work.
Without an explanation. "Tomorrow you don't have to come anymore."
We are here to help these comrades.
They have been fired, because they joined the union.
The COBAS union.
We are here to support them.
Like we've been supported, we do the same for others.
That's the way to do it.
We can't wait for the state or anyone else to solve this problem,
no one else will do it.
I am from Carpiano, Milan.
I came here to fight.
To defend my friends.
We told them: "If you don't let them go back to work today, then
we will go on strike in Milan, Bologna, Rome this evening."
Down with this slavery!
We are all humans beings!
Down with the mafia!
The mafia's reign is over!
The two of us used to work in a company called "Sole Montagna" that makes doner kebabs.
The factory owner changes the cooperative every year.
He tells the cooperative to go and then keeps the money.
Then he doesn't pay workers their holiday pay.
He keeps the money.
Then he says: "Speak to the cooperative, not to me."
"You are employed by the cooperative, not by me."
But when the cooperative has gone, where will I find it?
I have worked in his factory.
I worked there for five years.
Then he sacked me without warning or explanation. "Stay at home."
They stopped my unemployment benefit a month ago.
They paid 500 Euro. I have two children, I need to pay rent, electricity and gas.
I don't know how I'll keep going.
We asked friends and they said: "The COBAS will help you."
"They are the only union which defends workers."
"Go to them."
"Then things will get going."
"They don't leave you stuck like the CGIL."
I was a member of the CGIL for ten years.
They only care about membership fees and they take bribe money.
They always tell you; "There is no money." "We are in a crisis."
During which you're all working loads of hours.
If you work, you have to be paid.
If there is no work, they have to pay you unemployment benefit.
That's the law.
There is money, it is just in the wrong pockets.
Thanks, COBAS!
The history of the COBAS goes back to the struggles in the 1970s.
We got experience of struggles in the big factories in Milan,
some of the biggest in Italy.
We have experiences of mass-worker struggles.
Our COBAS union was formed in the 1990s at the Alfa Romeo plant.
Then it was called SLAI Cobas.
The SLAI Cobas mainly grew within the metal sector.
But it didn't have a clear perspective of class struggle.
No perspective of a broader way to organise, not just a sectorial way to organise.
The union did not grow outside Alfa Romeo.
Now we're starting to spread this idea amongst workers.
The concept of class struggle, of class solidarity
and of the most widespread organisation of dispute as possible.
I became a delegate after the struggle in 2012
because of what I witnessed then.
When I saw how people struggled for their dignity and suffered
in front of the gates.
I became more confident and decided to become a delegate and to support people.
Many of them don't speak Italian, can't write.
I wanted the message of the union to be heard by the workers.
So that they would know their rights, what they're entitled to,
how they should act when they're at work.
So I became a delegate and then they sacked me.
I got to know about SI Cobas, because I saw other warehouses
in Milan and also in TNT.
They have sorted things out in many warehouses and also improved the wages.
I went twice to the CGIL in Bologna
and they said to me: "You're better off switching jobs".
The problem is too big, we can't do anything there."
Until we found a union which said: "We can sort this out."
And we managed to sort things out.
We signed up with SI Cobas,
because it is the union that helps us understand whatever we still don't know about.
We are mainly foreigners and we don't know the Italian laws so well.
Yeah, they help us to go in the direction we've embarked on.
We put into practice the concept of unionised self-organisation.
Every one of us is doing this union work in an absolutely spontaneous way,
out of solidarity and without being paid for it.
We've been here two weeks now without a break.
For two weeks, Saturdays and Sundays too, there is no let-up.
We're here every morning at nine and in the evenings until eleven.
We're here on Sundays to send round press releases,
because if you're constantly on the go, that's too much.
So on Sundays you send around the press reports.
It is not just about strikes and the like.
You also have to take care of the workers,
we also have to deal with the disciplinary complaints,
of which we get sent millions.
And you have to respond to those.
That is an enormous amount of work.
Cobas! Cobas!
Hey Mohammed! How's it going?
I work here at CAMST and am a SI Cobas delegate.
We've got a majority here of 80, 90% who've all signed up to SI Cobas.
And a comrade died?
Inside here. Yes.
He was killed by the dynamic, which rules the world of the logistics worker.
It was a very accelerated pace of work.
There was loads of grief here before the SI Cobas popped up.
The people worked more, and more, and more.
as is required of them in the warehouses.
And this boy was suffering from stress,
due to the attacks which they launched against him.
We'll never forget him, this young man.
He was our first SI Cobas member.
And when they had realised that he had signed up,
they started to harass him,
to try to remove the influence of the union from this workplace.
And what was his name?
Gabriele.
He is dead.
We won't see him again.
But the struggle continues!
Blockade!
Strike today! Strike tomorrow!
So! What are your intentions now?
We're not letting anybody work.
No, now! Today!
Nothing's coming through. We're blocking everything.
But he has left the place! - Ok, so he walked out?
They're messing us around.
They've written down and printed our demands
and in the meantime the relevant company representatives have disappeared.
We don't want a war between poor people. Let it be!
You all have to be in solidarity with them too.
Strike today! Strike tomorrow!
Come on, let's make a chain guys! Make a chain!
You're messing the whole state around! And the workers, of course, even more so.
No, come in. He has been inside already.
Even if he was in there, it doesn't matter. Now he has to stay outside.
Are you on strike or are you at work?
We can't come out.
But you signed up to be members together with other workers, didn't you?
That means that you have made an agreement with each other,
that when one of you is attacked, that is an attack on everyone.
Why have you now left them in the lurch?
We didn't leave anyone in the lurch.
So why are you working while they're on strike?
Are you on strike? You don't want to work?
- No! How could we be working? We can't work...
And if they let you pass, would you go to work then?
- But why?
We are here so that no one can pass. That means that there is no work.
No one gets passed and no one gets out.
That's it.
Great. I already said to you: SDA is no problem,
because at SDA we've got 80% membership in the whole of Italy.
we just want to get things over and done with a bit quicker.
If things continue, if the cops arrive, we don't want a confrontation,
because we already know that we can win in other ways.
If the cops turn up we'll go home,
then tomorrow we ring up all the SDA-depots in Italy, and everyone will go on strike.
You only have to show that you all...
- But we have shown that already, that's why we are outside already.
Yeah, I'm happy to see you like that,
together with the sacked workers. That's a good sign. Great!
The workplace - won't be touched!
We will defend them - in struggle!
These struggles started as a result of contacts made
by some of the leading comrades in SI Cobas with workers employed in the logistics sector.
During these first encounters the enormous contradictions within the sector became apparent,
the strong abuse of workers, and the disregard for workers' rights and contracts.
and so it quickly became clear that there is not only a need,
but also the space for struggle.
A struggle which initially fought for the recognition of the national contract,
which the union federations had already signed,
but which management did not implement, even in companies where the unions were recognised.
The first strike we organised lasted for eight months.
It wasn't a permanent strike, we walked out every 15 days.
They thought that things would peter out after a while, that's what usually happens.
But thanks to the connections we had to the social centres,
to the social movements, to the ex-terrorists, the ex- this and the ex- that,
we managed to get 150 external supporters in front of the gates.
This encouraged the workers, it showed that there is a possibility to struggle.
That there is not only an internal response, but also a strong external one.
It was a connection between the movement of the workers inside,
with their desire to fight,
and the movement outside, which wasn't ideologically cohesive,
but which found unifying elements during the struggle itself!
And finally this new movement arose, which acted like a catalyst of the existing forces.
And the workers began to see that there was a way out.
And finally we won, mainly due to this long drawn-out experience,
which meant that all 180 workers in the warehouse had won and earned 400 Euro more per month.
They won in a situation, where for the rest of the workers in Italy, a pay increase
of 7 Euro per month in the usual collective bargain contract is a great success.
We have overcome this attitude, that there was supposedly no way out
because they're all migrants, poor people, who have no power whatsoever etc.
In reality these migrants in struggle were already a reference point for other sectors.
And right from the start, based on previous experiences...
we addressed the problem that workers shouldn't focus on just one struggle or company,
but start to extend the organisational steps to all kind of different workplaces...
and we started to let those workers who were allowed to do so,
as official delegates, go to all kinds of other places.
We made sure that these workers got their allocated time for union duties.
Workers who, usually, aren't allowed to leave their factories.
Based on the fact that as delegates we have eight hours for union duties
and because we were able to make use of this in some places and the SI Cobas grew,
we sent some of the migrant militants,
to different places to support struggles there.
That was the dynamic.
When this movement expanded, we won in two or three locations,
which were of particular importance for the logistics sector.
TNT in Piacenza was a special dynamic, when we entered into the dispute there.
In a work situation that was previously very repressive.
Where the workers arrived at 6pm
and waited until 10.30pm to be called in.
They could start work at 6pm or 10.30pm.
When they got inside, they worked 3 or 4 hours
then had a 4 hour break!
They had to take that break inside the warehouse - they couldn't go home to rest.
They started work again and worked until midday.
After that, they still didn't have any time to eat or rest
because they had to go back to work at 6pm. 369 00:32:11,724 --> 00:32:15,724 Mafia! Mafia! Bogus payslips!
Bogus! Bogus!
Mafia! Mafia!
Strike! Strike! Strike!
Look into your faces! Today you have proven that you can be united.
Look into each others eyes and look at them,
and let them now what kind of scumbags they are,
that they have given you such shit contracts,
and have treated you like dogs.
You have to look at them:
They are afraid and that is the only reason they come and talk to us.
By bringing various other people, of other Cobas unions,
and the social centres of Milan and other towns,
this struggle has become one of the most important political struggles.
It wasn't just a dispute at TNT anymore.
Say that we won't sign anything, and we won't agree upon anything
before there has been an assembly of workers.
If the workers say that the result is good, then we finish the dispute.
If we have to go on, we'll go on.
Peace! Peace!
We want our rights!
We're from AF Logistica in Astalengo
and we are happy to support our brothers at TNT Piacenza.
And this is our message to the management of AF Logistica:
If things don't change quickly, then you're next in line.
We're coming for you!
We want our rights!
The Boss - down!
Mubarak - down!
It was clear that they felt part of a movement
that was on the attack and this gave them strength.
They felt united with those who took to the streets in Tahrir.
This was a good thing to see
because it gave them power.
The idea was that by struggling you can win.
It worked very well because they had a structure,
which I could have never created even in 20 years.
There was one person who took care of the food for everyone.
An organisational structure that probably came from their own community structure.
A structure, that became a central core of the struggle,
which then became the most important tool of the struggle.
For those who didn't experience it... if I talk about it now, I still feel touched.
On a personal level there have been very touching actions.
And we won, thanks to our determination and to these actions.
The female warehouse worker is not afraid!
I'd been talking with the girls since 2012
because I came to know about this union called SI Cobas.
But there has been a lot of fear
because they put you in a condition of servility,
you are enslaved
to the point that you can't even say 'a'.
You don't say anything, you work item after item after item...
The items you sort are your problem, night and day
even when you go home you think about these items you have to sort and pick.
So I'd been speaking with the girls since 2012 and I don't know how it happened.
It was good luck.
Slowly the girls got a bit of courage.
I spoke with them,
telling them that I had a friend involved in the struggles at TNT.
He said to me he worked at TNT,
they went on strike in 2012.
They got some results,
which are very positive,
like they managed to win meal tickets.
Finally we rebelled, we united
we ditched the fear.
They were frightening us all of the time
with their threats
and finally some of us plucked up some courage
and we went on strike.
Shame on you!
Thief!
You've been exploiting us for years!
You didn't respect any rights!
We joined the union
and we started the first struggle on May 5th.
For me, that has been a wonderful thing.
There was only a handful of people.
They came by car with SI Cobas flags
and they started the strike shouting.
The female warehouse worker is not afraid!
The boss moved the first workers who joined the union
to warehouses further away
so that he could fire them if they didn't show up to work.
So these guys came together
and they went on strike.
They went back to work the day after,
straight to work.
I had never gone on strike
and then just come back to work.
So the day after I thought to myself: it means that
they are telling the truth.
The union are scaring them!
This means that this is the right union!
So slowly a lot of people like me joined SI Cobas.
The (female) warehouse worker is not afraid!
We all walked out from the warehouse.
It was great.
I remember I was working and I saw all these people,
my comrades walking out and I thought it was for a SI Cobas meeting.
I looked at them and they said to me: let's go!
Ok then! I quit everything I was doing
and walked out with them.
It was the first strike of my life
like for most of my female colleagues, I think, maybe for all of them.
It was very exciting.
The first day it was just us,
then some girls from Hobo - the squat - came,
and Karim and other SI Cobas trade unionists came.
So the day after we organised.
More people came because they didn't want
to enter into a negotiation, they didn't want to listen to us.
By 'they' I mean Yoox (company), MisterJob (co-operative), the bosses.
On Friday the situation escalated
and they called the police,
but there were lots of us.
The girls blocked a truck, we put ourselves under a truck,
we denounced many things happening in there,
mainly sexual harassment.
The (female) warehouse worker is not afraid!
Let him go! Let him go!
Arseholes!
You're all shit!
Bastards!
Let him go!
The other big struggle that took place in and around Bologna
was at Granarolo,
which is a big brand, dealing with the production of milk and dairy products.
The struggle began between the end of April and the beginning of May 2012
and lasted for a long time.
It ended one and a half year later.
Come on guys! Crouch down!
Come on, sit down!
We discovered that every month the payslips were
500 to 800 euros lower than normal.
They explained
that it was due to the crisis, saying: that's how the world works.
So they withheld 35% of the pay.
We didn't accept it because it was our money!
If I go to work everyday it means
that the company isn't undergoing the effects of the crisis.
The crisis is somewhere else, yes,
but I am working 365 days a year - so there is no crisis.
So it's not ok.
They said: we can't do anything because the agreement has already been signed,
so we can't do anything.
If you want to work, then go to work.
If you don't want to work there are 1000 people outside
who want to take your job.
Afterwards we went to CGIL
they are trade unions like CISL and UIL,
they are trade unions, they should help the workers.
We also showed them our payslips.
We said: see what's going on with the payslips.
We asked: can you please tell us if they can do this to us or not?
They said the same thing:
that an agreement has been signed,
saying that there is a 35% cut in pay until 2015.
So they said: sorry! They didn't want to do anything.
Then, we heard that a trade union arrived in Bologna.
A trade union called SI Cobas.
We went to them.
We showed all our documents and our payslips,
to ask if this thing was right or not.
And they said something else.
He said: this isn't fine.
So this is how the struggle started.
This is not okay because this is wage theft.
Granarolo! Thieves!
CGIL! Thieves!
Granarolo! Thieves!
Come on!
Let me go!
Shame!
The police came,
the carabinieri came...
Oh my god! When I saw the vans of police and carabinieri
I felt like I was a terrorist
But I am a worker! I'm seeking my dignity!
Before the dismissal
the boss of our cooperative called me.
The name of the cooperative is SGB,
Service Group Bologna.
The boss' name is Paolo Schiavina, a great exploiter.
First he thought: they are foreigners they don't understand, they are ignorant.
Afterwards, when he understood that we'd woken up
to reclaim our rights,
he got scared.
He called all the workers.
We went to see him and he said: guys, now, I understand
that you miss the money.
But let me ask you one thing.
So we said: Yes, what do you want to tell us?
He said: Can you go back to work as usual?
And you'll get the amount of money on the payslip
according to the number of hours you work
plus 250 Euros under the table.
But you have to accept the 35% cut, due to the crisis, until 2015.
We didn't accept it because:
we're trying to live with dignity,
and if I accept money under the table, I'm a thief as well.
I'm doing something wrong.
Shame on you! Shame on you!
They are mafia!
They are the thieves!
We went on strike for two days.
On the third day we went back to our workplaces.
Granarolo's workers went to Granarolo
while we from COGIFRIN went to our workplaces.
When we got in
the boss was waiting for us at the gate
asking: 'Where are you guys going?'
We said: 'We're going to our workspaces.'
He said: 'Why?'
We said: 'Because we work here.'
He said: 'No, you can't get in.'
We asked: 'Why?'
He said: 'Because you went on strike.'
Excuse me?! You can go on strike if you work.
Why shouldn't I be able to go on strike?
For example, at the airport a pilot who flies an aeroplane -
I've already paid a lot of money for my ticket -
but if he wants to go on strike he does it. - How come I can't?
I'm a worker, I'm working in the shit, inside this company,
and I'm really angry. I want to go on strike, and I did it.
- 'No, you can't go on strike.' So? What to do? - 'You have to leave.'
Let him go!
Calm down!
Block it!
Why the f*** are you pushing?!
Let him go! Let him go!
What do you want to do?
Why are you forcing us to react?
Bastard!
Make him get out!
Labour is a right!
Let him go!
Be nice!
Let him go!
You be nice!
Look with your own eyes!
Go! Go! Go!
You can't always take orders without thinking with your own head
and asking why a person comes to put himself under a truck!
9 months! 9 months! 9 months!
Let me go!
For us the social centre is the practice of occupation
and to try and put together the various conflicts happening in our area
where we're living,
and, above all, where conflicts take place against capitalism and against exploitation.
We came to know about these struggles
because they developed a few kilometers away from here, in Piacenza,
which is a city very close to Bologna.
Some of our comrades lived in Piacenza and they'd already started to participate
and to follow the struggles in the logistics sector.
For us it was quite natural to try to connect with these struggles.
The support we encountered...
Really...
There are a lot of people who have won their dignity
and are trying to get some dignity for the others, too.
Since it was a movement that was getting bigger by itself,
the social movements which we'd met in different places from time to time
like Milan, Piacenza etc.
came to us, followed us and became supportive elements to this struggle.
Even in the places where our trade unionists could not be present
some militants took the place of the trade unionists
to organise strikes.
In Granarolo for instance, this guy and this guy specifically followed the struggle
but when they were not there,
two or three militants from 'Crash' were there every day
at the pickets, from 5 in the morning, in order to follow this struggle.
We went to see, to know,
to meet the subjects who were fighting
to experience that struggle,
to understand the dynamics of the strike, to understand the dynamics of the picket.
The trade union took charge of the negotiating parts of the action,
as they were somehow 'managing' the labour dispute
therefore, talking with the employer, with the institutional counterparts.
The workers, from their point of view, put all the knowledge that they had acquired
by working in the warehouses into the struggle.
They employed all their knowledge about the production process -
in this case the distribution process - like: what was the best time to do blockades?
Namely: when are most of the goods sent out?
What are the other warehouses to contact
in the attempt to create a supply-chain block?
In case the company management tried to move production,
from Bologna to Modena, for instance, the knowledge of the workers
- who knew that a determined product had to pass through Modena -
allowed us to organise blockades there too.
The workers shared their specific skills,
the militants shared the knowledge they'd built up over the years, during past struggles
and the production of discourse. It was also very important
to try to put in order the ideas, that sometimes
come out randomly, especially in times of conflict.
They tried to organise stuff.
For instance, when the struggle in Granarolo took place,
'Anonymous' (hackers) shut down Granarolo's website.
This was another piece of specific knowledge
which came together with the others.
- Those who work with independent media were allowed to break the news
and this forced the mainstream media to do it as well.
Some of us were in contact with the national press,
I mean the left-wing press that was closer to us.
There as well we had the chance to publish articles and notices.
All these pieces were put together.
Regarding the actions and the clashes with the police,
those who had more experience in this shared their knowledge.
Over the course of time,
there has been such a sharing of skills and experience
that in the end it was difficult to work out who these knowledges belonged to!
This is very important for me.
When we took part in logistics struggles,
we did it because we said
this is what is waiting for us. This is like what we're experiencing everyday -
although in a very different and less daily way.
However, the perspective we have as a generation,
in a certain sense, is that of precarity,
of exploitation, and to be side by side with the warehouse workers in the struggle,
with the logistics workers,
has been a step forward
because we were united.
The idea was: I'm standing by you now since I know
that you will do the same when I'll need you.
The workers always shouted something very touching:
We are united! We are united!
That is basically what makes you win the battles,
namely to bring together students, the precarious, workers
who are in the same condition of precarity. So we could identify a single enemy
who is the exploiter, the boss.
I want to thank all the people who have been together with us at the gates of COGIFRIN,
and above all at the gates of Granarolo,
and all the workers who came with us,
all the students and the social centres like Hobo,
and above all, 'Crash'.
They were very good and strong.
Something I had never seen. Very good.
They taught me many things
concerning struggles and rights.
Thank you!
Look! This is a worker of COGIFRIN.
He worked with me.
This was in front of Granarolo factory.
I would say I was under the truck.
See! There was someone who was talking with me.
He was saying: please come out!
See! This picture was on the front page of every newspaper.
What's going on? Was he throwing a chair against a cop?
The main managers of Granarolo were here at the back.
In that moment we were sad and shouting out for our rights
and the cop had his hands in his pockets and smiled
as if he was happy.
When this worker saw the cop smiling as if he was joking
you can see what this worker did in front of the police
and everyone. He was not afraid
We said: fight hard! No fear!
Here it's always me acting like a mechanic
See! I've learnt this job in Italy!
It's me!
This is the guy who got arrested
The police... it sucks
I was always on the front line
because if I'm not feeling like doing it, and the others neither...
We need to feel like doing it together.
I was really always on the front line.
It's not because I'm bad
I was just reclaiming my rights!
I'm proud of it because I never did it before.
I didn't know it.
Those batons gave me courage.
Look! That's me!
That one beat me three times,
one after the other,
always hitting the same spot on my shoulder,
right here.
I'm proud.
This is a worker of Ikea.
Who? The one who was at the demo yesterday.
Mohammed.
This is from Ikea. Ikea. Students from Hobo.
Boys from Crash.
Workers.
Kids from Milan. An African from DIELLE - I'm sorry for them too
because yesterday they were alone.
Every day the carabinieri come to beat us up here.
They are treating us like slaves.
You must film that woman too. She's the most unkind.
She's the factory owner.
She's the wife of the owner.
We are not well-paid.
The job is not safe.
That's why we're outside.
Now the boss doesn't want to listen nor change the rules.
He doesn't want to hear our protest.
He wants to kick everyone out.
That's why we are resisting here
until things change.
Every time we protest
the carabinieri arrive,
cops arrive.
They beat us up
to allow the scabs to go in.
We resist!
Still here.
We have been resisting for four months.
We hope to get our rights,
and win.
We believe we are going to win.
We want dignity.
Slavery must end.
Now, they're just lacking the uniform.
In a bit they will give them the uniform and the batons too.
Please guys don't lay a hand on them.
Shall we sit down? Yes, let's all sit down
Wait!
Shame on you! Shame on you!
Don't touch him!
Let him go!
Guys!
They took one person away!
Fucking cops!
They took us and they...
They always treat us like this...
With the growth of the struggle, the state/bourgeoisie started to understand
that this movement has a certain meaning.
And so from then on, 150 to 200 policemen were in front of the gates every time.
And through that, the workers started to understand what the police actually are.
Initially they talked to the police, saying: "Hey, it's undemocratic what you're doing,
you have to defend democracy!"
"We are the goodies, - the others are the criminals, mafia co-operatives!"
Then they understood that the mafia system and capitalism belong together.
So from then on, the worker didn't go up to the police and ask: "Why are you beating me?"
He understood that the police exists to beat him up.
None of us is afraid of the police.
What can happen? Nothing.
There is only life and death.
If I'm dying of hunger, I'd rather die fighting for my rights.
We have only life or death.
I'm dying of hunger because I don't have any more wages.
I cant eat, I can't pay the rent, can't buy any clothes, can't buy anything,
which means I'm dying.
So if I'm already dying of hunger, I'd rather go in from of the gates
and let them hit me, on the head, the shoulders, the legs.
and even if they kill me, it makes no difference.
At least then I'll have died for my dignity.
Cobas today, Cobas tomorrow!
That is the bottom line. They can't carry on any more like this.
Now we're having a gathering amongst ourselves, we're talking to each other.
And in 15 days, you have to be ready to demand even more.
Down again!
We'll be back!
Assembly!
Cobas today, Cobas tomorrow!
Call them!
So guys, as you all have seen, the warehouse doesn't operate without you.
You are all the masters of the warehouse, nobody else.
We know how you work.
You all work 16, 13 hours as warehouse workers, as drivers,
with half a regular wage.
Without the statutory christmas bonus, without sick pay in case you fall ill,
full of worry, without dignity.
So you work. But today, you have to understand that you people, united,
aren't only able to fight for this small piece of paper
stating the recognition of the national wage contract.
A contract which should have been recognised a long time ago.
Because that's what the employers themselves have drafted.
From the outset they committed to comply with this minimum.
But they haven't complied, because with them it is always empty words.
The law doesn't work here. The powerful eat up the weak.
In the future, united, we can breath at this workplace and have enough to live on.
But you have to talk with each other, have meetings.
If they try and sack one of you, then stop the whole warehouse operation.
Up until now, there have only been words: "In 15 days."
But if nothing happens here in 15 days?
Will you all return then back to slavery?
No!
Who wants to go back to slave conditions?
We're all with you. Workers from DIELLE were here.
Thanks Cobas!
All for one and one for all!
From today onwards, you belong to a family that is called SI Cobas,
who protects you and your rights.
In Bergamo too, we're starting to build SI Cobas.
Today is an important day! We're starting here and will develop.
If we don't win this battle then it's because we don't want to.
Some people's fear: that doesn't matter!
Don't start to argue because one of you joins in and the other doesn't.
No!
Sooner or later, everyone will come.
Are you happy? Yeah, I'm ultra-happy,
because we've won a big recognition of our struggle.
because we've reached a goal that we'd set ourselves, namely
the reinstatement of four sacked workers
whose only offence was that they became members of SI Cobas,
which became a thorn in the side of the employers.
We opened a bottle, it was like a liquid that wanted to explode.
When we uncorked it, it exploded,
and we gave them a direction to show that it's possible
to lead struggles and to win.
We have achieved something, a bit of respect.
Also we notice that underneath this respect, that there's a hate bubbling against us.
But at the very least they've changed their tone when they speak to us.
They've suspended almost all male superiors
because we've pressed charges against them for bullying,
threats and sexual harassment.
Many things have really changed a lot. I never see anyone crying anymore.
Earlier we had to finish loads of pieces,
now they don't say anything about the piece-rate anymore.
We, who were members of this union and went on strike,
now we just work like normal people are supposed to work.
We don't run anymore to reach the targets, like we used to do.
But the others continue doing so, because the bosses still threaten them
by saying that we will leave the warehouse sooner or later,
so they are not supposed to look at what we are doing.
Even if there are only few of us where we work
the wages have nevertheless increased for everyone
and the productivity targets are less arbitrary.
I used to earn 900 Euro.
Now I earn 1.800 Euro.
The same work, the same amount of hours. Thanks to Cobas.
I always say: thanks to Cobas, our families make ends meet.
Before, the rich parents' kid brought two croissants to school.
Now my kid also brings two croissants to school.
Now us 80 guys are happy.
It is different from before. We have changed the situation.
We work calmly.
I have more dignity, more self-confidence,
and I am content with myself, because I would never have thought,
that I would do something like this.
At first I thought, 'I'm a foreigner and I have to work like a slave.'
They made us think like that!
That you have to be a slave.
Wake up in the mornings, go to work, come home at night, go to bed.
That is not a life.
When I was sacked, my life changed.
I am another person.
For my dignity.
At first, above all, it was a work struggle.
But now I'm doing it also because I'm a woman.
So as to say that women are also able to struggle,
to get their rights,
that their dignity won't be allowed to be trampled on by male sexism
and also not by racism etc.
I am a Moroccan woman, it's fun for me to struggle
and from now on, my life will be dedicated to struggle.
For me personally, my participation, my activism with the SI Cobas has,
on the one hand lead to me finding out about the concrete problems
these migrant workers in this sector are facing.
On the other hand, I can get experience of struggles that I'd never had before.
It's also allowed me to reflect
on the relationship that it can give between immediate struggle
and the perspective to change society:
On the one hand these struggles are important, they are necessary, something vital
that is brought into a social situation that otherwise would stagnate.
The participation in these struggles also makes it possible for young people
who want to get involved, to support a real class struggle,
instead of setting up goals, which are often pretty artificial and inter-classist.
It is also an opportunity for many young people to educate themselves.
On the other hand, these struggles also have clear limits
the same as all economic struggles.
And only if within these struggles a more general,
also a political consciousness in these workers is established,
then these struggles can be the start of a process of change
with potential for a revolutionary change of society.
Why did we win? Because we were united.
Not just the 51 of us.
Not just Bologna but the whole of Italy.
According to my opinion, the struggle at Granarolo was the famous struggle.
Also on an international level.
There was a boycott - also in Germany,France, Belgium,
all over Italy: Naples, Rome, Milan, Piacenza etc. etc.
Because of all that, we won.
Because they thought there was only 51 of us, but in reality it was the whole country.
That's why we won.