“Today is the time to vaccinate and not the time to lay off”. To say it Maurizio Landini, general secretary of the Cgil, on the occasion of the Workers ‘ Day, the second in a time of the coronavirus pandemic. The health crisis has been intertwined in recent months with a very deep social crisis: the contagions and victims of the virus have been followed by the loss of millions of jobs and the relative increase in poverty.
This is why May Day must be an opportunity to reflect on the work that will come after the pandemic and on the role that millions of workers have played this year. ” We must invest in health, safety, and the welfare state, ” said Landini, speaking at the AST steelworks in Terni, one of the symbolic places chosen for the three unitary events organized by Cgil, Cisl, and Uil. ”It is the work that takes care of Italy and indicates that today is the time to vaccinate and not the time to dismiss”.
“We have seen the price we have paid because of the health care cuts as well” Landini warns. Interviewed by print the Secretary-General of the Cgil has relaunched the proposal of a profound change “of the development model “adding that” the key can be the recovery plan. But the government must listen to us because you do not change the country without or against the world of work”. “It is true that the government has just formed and had very tight time to meet the deadline of April 30 – he says-this does not detract from the fact that so far our involvement has been very poor. Precisely because we do not consider that plan closed we ask to discuss it”. For Landini this year May Day ” has an even more important meaning, because – he argues-it is the work that will defeat the virus, and it is the work of people that can build another social model”.
According to the Cgil leader “we are struggling with the start of an investment plan that is unprecedented in our history. This can be an opportunity to change, to return to affirming that through work people can live with dignity” And when asked about the possibility of recovering a million jobs lost in the last year, hypothesized by Minister Orlando, Landini answers: “In these years I have learned that it is better not to give numbers and I keep this line”.
