The secretary of the CGIL Maurizio Landini accuses the government of not having involved the unions in the drafting of the 2025 budget, which has meanwhile arrived in Parliament: “There was no discussion with the social partners. It is confirmed that we are faced with a government that has an authoritarian logic, that thinks that since it won the elections it can do what it wants,” he said in an interview with Fanpage.it.
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The secretary of the CGIL Maurizio Landiniin an interview with Fanpage.it, comments on the measures of the Budget law, which has begun its process in the Chamber. There was no space for a dialogue with the trade unions, who were not consulted for the drafting of the text: “There was no discussion with the social partners. It confirms that we are faced with a government that has a authoritarian logic. Instead of governing, he thinks he can always command”, said Landini. This is also why the CGIL is considering one general strike: “Faced with this maneuver we think that there is also a need to reach a general mobilization. We will also propose it to the other organizations and in the next few hours, in the next few days we will decide to implement an initiative and we are not ruling out absolutely anything. It is the time to mobilize, to take to the streets.”
Secretary, do you expect to be summoned to Palazzo Chigi for the maneuver? Will there be any margin to modify the measures that have arrived in Parliament?
No, it seems to me that they have already sent the maneuver to Parliament, they have already stamped it. So at this point the discussion is already in Parliament and there has been no discussion with the social partners. It is confirmed that we are faced with a government that has an authoritarian logic, which thinks that since it won the elections it can do whatever it wants. Instead of governing, they think they can always command, without having to argue with those who represent them. They talk about taxes, they block pensions, they talk about wages, and they don’t talk to the trade union organizations that represent millions of workers in our country. I believe that this is a sign of the danger that our democracy is experiencing, because it is the same government that is making decrees to liberalize precariousness, that is making decrees to prevent us from mobilizing. I am worried because this is a logic that leads our country to collapse.
In the text of the 2025 budget there is a line that undermines an entire sector: the problem of the Web Tax
The most conspicuous part of the maneuver is represented by the cutting of the tax wedge and the merging of Irpef rates. However, these were measures that already existed and were simply made structural. What is there instead for wages for workers in the text of the budget?
On wages, they actually confirm something that already existed in order not to lower them, while we need to increase wages, because they have not defended purchasing power. And the thing they should have done, that is, put the resources to renew public employment contracts, they didn’t do. The resources that exist allow a 6% increase for public sector workers, when inflation in recent years has been 17%. Signing agreements on those figures that the government is imposing means planning to reduce the purchasing power of wages. And they are also sending a message to all private entrepreneurs: since there are all the contracts to be renewed, from metalworkers, to chemists, to textiles, to construction workers, the message the government is sending is that in this phase contracts can be renewed without recover the purchasing power of wages. So these measures are a sign of wage reduction. And furthermore, since they don’t act on taxes, they don’t go and get the money where it is, they don’t act on extra profits and profits, the true fact is that the increase in tax revenues in this country generally comes from Irpef, that is, they come from the workers employees and pensioners, who are the only ones who see an increase in direct taxation of their salary and pensions.
Speaking of extra profits, what was supposed to be on the banks, i.e. the tax on extra profits, ultimately turned into a postponement of deductions, practically a sort of loan on future taxes, which the government will then have to repay in the coming years. A joke?
Yes, this is a joke. Banks do their job, they were created to lend money, in this case they are making a loan to the State to give it a little more liquidity in this phase, but then they take it back for the following years. It’s a punch in the face not having taxed profits, not just banks. In 2022-2023 the level of profits there were in this country was record-breaking, they have never made so many. Instead of going to get the money there, with progressive taxation – because with an increase in profits there must be an increase in revenue, in taxes – they are not doing it. This also determines the fact that they are not making the investments that would be needed in healthcare, schools and nursery schools.
So this is a maneuver against workers, against workers, against workers, against pensioners, against young people because they are increasing precariousness. In recent days they have voted for a work-related proposal which increases precariousness even more. In addition to having liberalized fixed-term contracts, they also liberalized temporary work and liberalized any form of precarious work. Today we have thousands of underpaid young people and many of our graduates are deciding to leave our country. This is an element that goes against our democracy and against social stability and social cohesion.
However, the government has promised that if there were to be more income from the two-year Concordat, and this will only be known at the end of October, it could intervene on the median bracket of the three Irpef rates, so there could be a reduction in the Irpef rate from 35% to 33%. . Isn’t it a bit paradoxical that in order to help the middle class you have to go through an amnesty?
Yes, it’s not just a temporary amnesty. This is a way to legalize tax evasion, because the preventive agreement establishes that the person who does it can establish for the next two years how much he takes, and if he takes more than what he agreed, he doesn’t pay taxes. And we are talking about that part of the country, according to the Revenue Agency, which has a propensity for tax evasion of 70%. So it is a mechanism which in reality, rather than combating tax evasion, rather than bringing back a principle of progressivity and fairness in taxation, goes in the opposite direction.
In reality we are also against the three rates, because the rates should be more than three. I would like to remind everyone that in the Seventies in Italy there were 32 rates, the lowest was 10%, the highest was 72%. I’m not saying we need to go back to 32, but I would like to point out that now the lowest is 23% and the highest is 43%. In Italy the only ones who pay Irpef are employees and pensioners, 90%. In reality in Italy we have a tax system according to which not everyone pays the same taxes. This means that people then have to pay twice. What’s happening in healthcare? That I pay contributions every month and then public health doesn’t work, there are waiting lists and if I still don’t pay I have nothing. I would like to give you two numbers. Private healthcare spending reached 46 billion in 2023, increased that year by another 4 billion, and coincidentally the cuts that have been made in healthcare over the last twenty years amount to 40 billion. Does this government, instead of addressing these issues, want to create differentiated autonomy?
There has been a mini adjustment on minimum pensions and now, according to the text received in Parliament, there is talk of an increase of 3 euros. In your opinion, is this a handout as Codacons also said?
Yes, it seems to me that it is absolutely inadequate given the current situation. But I would like to point out that if we talk about pensions there is not only a problem of inadequacy of the revaluation, but I point out that they are increasing the retirement age. This government, which promised during the election campaign that it would radically modify and modify the Fornero law, is making it worse, indeed, it is increasing the retirement age, and people who should be retiring are not going. The new generations of precarious workers are not guaranteed any future. We have been asking for some time to introduce a guarantee pension for the new generations, so that they are also covered for the periods of non-work they have, and that they have an adequate contribution even when starting their working life. In reality what is happening is that young people, and women in particular, risk being precarious in their lives and not even in the future having a public system that guarantees them something.
Are you considering a mobilization, a general strike?
Absolutely yes, among other things, various category initiatives are already planned. On the 18th (October) there was a metalworkers’ strike, on the 19th we demonstrated with all the public workers in the square for public health. On Friday the 25th (today ed.) there is the chemists’ strike and then the following week there are the mobilizations planned by pensioners in our country in all the territories. On October 31st, a general strike was proclaimed in all sectors of education, knowledge and university. On November 8th there is a strike in local public transport, another sector in which the government is cutting while people need a qualification of services, not just an increase in salaries. It is clear that now faced with this maneuver which was delivered to Parliament without any discussion with the trade unions, we think that there is also a need to reach a general mobilization. We will also propose it to other organizations and in the next few hours, in the next few days we will decide to implement an initiative, and we are absolutely not ruling out anything. It’s time to mobilize, to take to the streets and demand to be heard and to bring the needs of people who have to work to live back to the center of this country.
Source: www.fanpage.it
