On 15 March 2019 BWI’s three Italian affiliates – FENEAL-UIL, FILCA-CISL, and FILLEA-CGIL – representing workers in the building, wood and furniture, cement and building materials and stone sectors organized a general strike. Nearly 20,000 workers throughout Italy traveled by buses, ferries, trains, and airplanes to gather and demonstrate at the Piazza del Popolo, in Rome.
Key speakers at the mass demonstration were workers from each sector along with the General Secretaries of FENEAL, FILCA, and FILLEA. The main message focused on the negative employment impacts on the workers in the building, building materials and wood and furniture sector since 2008. According to the Italian unions, “the 2008 crisis is the worst to hit our sectors since the post-war period, with the loss of 800,000 jobs and the closure of 120,000 companies.”
The general secretaries of the three Confederations, CGIL, CISL, and UIL were also present at the event. During the demonstration, a collection of solidarity videos from trade unions around the world were shown. The videos included messages from EFBWW and BWI leadership along with BWI affiliates from Myanmar, Australia, Argentina, Russia, South Korea, and Ukraine. The Italian unions expressed their gratitude to these unions for their support and solidarity.
Immediately following the mass mobilization, a trade union delegation led by the three General secretaries of FENEAL, FILCA, and FILLEA, met with the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Social Affairs Luigi Di Maio; and Minister of Infrastructures and Transport Danilo Toninelli at Palazzo Chigi to discuss the unions’ demands.
As a result of the meeting, the government has agreed to partially implement the unions’ proposal to immediately re-open the 600 blocked construction sites. However, to date, the so called "unblock construction-sites decree", although approved, is still not definitive and does contain all of the unions’ proposals. The unions are also opposed to the government’s decision to stop the Tav works: the Turin-Lyon (HighSpeed Train), which they consider to be an important project for job creation for Italy but also to bring Italy closer to its neighbouring countries in Europe.
