The base unions in Italy

A dossier about base unions (or rank and file unions) in Italy.

Submitted by StrugglesInItaly on June 5, 2013

The term “base unions” (or occasionally “rank and file unions”) includes many organizations with very different structures. It includes all those conflicting unions presenting themselves as alternatives to the major union confederations (CGIL, CISL and UIL), although not all are formed solely of rank and file members, with no full-time officials.

Base trade unionism in Italy is an extremely complex and varied world, reflecting both the Italian left’s great political liveliness as well as its fragmentation. Its historic roots lie deep in the experience of the 1969-70 Hot Autumn (autunno caldo) when huge masses of workers started participating democratically and with extreme radicalism against the decisions of the big unions. During that period of very hard struggle, the mainstream unions found themselves pushed by the pressure of the workers into fighting some fundamental battles, which led in the second half of the 20th century to an improvement in the standard of living for most of the Italian working population.

During those struggles, the workers organized themselves into consigli di fabbrica (factory councils). These were democratic bodies made up of representatives elected by all workers in single sections or factory departments, regardless of their union membership. The factory councils were then recognized by the mainstream unions as their base bodies and became the transmission belt between the workers, determined to decide themselves the orientation of the unions’ structures, and the unions’ structures themselves. The factory council period was closely linked to the period of the CGIL, CISL and UIL Federation, an attempt to unify the three major Italian unions, born on the wave of the Hot Autumn struggles and which foundered during the 1980s. However, it was in 1978, with the “turning point of Eur” (svolta dell’Eur), that the factory councils, as well as the commitment to a strategy based on collective struggle, were sidelined by the unions.

Although factory councils were strongly criticized by groups from the extra-parliamentary left (which accused them of being an attempt to bridle the workers’ activism), workers very much wanted them to exist and took part in them. Following this path, base trade unionism began to develop, as autonomous organizational organisms opposed to the major unions and as a place where those who had left the main unions encountered political militants with their experience of the revolutionary left.

As we’ve already said, the world of Italian base unionism is intricate with many organizations, some structured and some more fluid. Here, we attempt an overview of the situation as things stand in May 2013.

Confederazione Cobas

Confederazione Cobas (as well as some other base unions, see below) take their name from the comitati di base (base committees) born during the 1980s. The union itself was formed as part of a process starting in 1987 in the wake of a major school strike, with the push coming largely from school workers, followed shortly after by workers in the rail industry. Committees then spread to all sectors, organizing themselves into networks and eventually formalizing themselves into the Confederazione dei Comitati di Base (aka Confederazione Cobas) in 1999.

In addition to building on the experience of the factory councils, the first Cobas also recalled the experience of the unitary base committees (comitati unitari di base). These were born in the 1960s with the purpose of moving factory workers’ struggles from the company level to the political level. They were made up of workers and political militants from the extra-parliamentary left and many founders of the first COBAS came from that milieu. Piero Bernocchi, COBAS school spokesperson, writes: “We have tried to be a union-political organization that does not separate today’s struggles from the future’s struggles, the present society’s struggles from the projects of a transformation towards the desired future society, national struggles from international struggles”.

Confederazione Cobas is an important organization especially in the education sector and the wider public sector, particularly in Rome.

CUB

The CUB (Confederazione Unitaria di Base, the Unitary Base Confederation, not to be confused with the unitary base committees mentioned above) is a confederation of base unions set up in 1992, with a regular national structure including full-time organisers, employees and so on. It also provides many services such as tax, social security and legal advice for workers, consumers and migrants.

At present, it is thought to be the biggest base union organization in Italy, with around 500,000 members. It’s active in many sectors, such as construction, transport, media/culture and some industrial sectors though it is strongest in the public sector. It has also called strikes over explicitly “political matters” such as the wars in Iraq and the Balkans as well as in support of the No Tav struggle in Piedmont.

USB

The USB (Unione Sindacale di Base) is a union born in 2010 from a merger between a number of different base unions, some from the CUB. The USB also has a regular national structure with some full-time staff and around 250,000 members. It’s especially active in the public sector and in some particular important struggles, such as the struggle for the right to housing (through the tenants’ union ASIA USB) and for migrants’ rights.

It also gives great importance to the provision of services such as legal advice and migrant support drop-ins.

USI-AIT

The USI-AIT (Unione Sindacale Italiana) is a much smaller union, inspired explicitly by the principles of anarcho-syndicalism. It has sections in many cities across Italy, particularly in Emilia Romagna, Tuscany and Milan as well as in the healthcare industry. In Milan in particular, it is strong in two large hospitals, San Raffaele and San Paolo, both of which are in big financial trouble and have seen fierce struggle in recent years. At San Raffaele, along with USB, it played a major part in the recent struggle against cuts.

It is also involved in the Flores Magon Libertarian Project, providing medical support and solidarity for Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico.

SLAI Cobas

SLAI Cobas (Sindacato Lavoratori Autorganizzati-Cobas) was set up in 1994 mostly by former CGIL members, many of whom had had their primary political experiences in the autonomous factory struggles of the 1970s. Today it still has bases in some major factories of heavy industry, such as Alfa Romeo in Arese (near Milan) and Fiat Pomigliano (near Naples) as well as having a good presence in Lombardy more generally.

Slai Cobas has also in the past supported members from the union taking part in the Communist Refoundation Party candidates’ list.

SI Cobas

Formed by workers leaving Slai Cobas inthe mid to late-1990s, SI Cobas (Sindacato Intercategoriale Cobas) is at present mostly active in the logistics industry, where it is currently carrying out a fierce struggle over wages and conditions. It is the only base union where the presence of migrant workers is undoubtedly larger than that of Italians and, probably as a result, the average age of its members is notably lower.

Comments

Harrison

11 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Harrison on June 5, 2013

Thank you for posting this, there are surprisingly few english language articles about the Italian base unions.

StrugglesInItaly

11 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by StrugglesInItaly on June 6, 2013

Thank you Harrison! There are few Italian language articles as well.

yeksmesh

11 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by yeksmesh on June 6, 2013

Is the USI-AIT the IWA-AIT affiliate in Italy or the non-affiliated one? As I seem to remember both use -AIT in their name.

Entdinglichung

11 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Entdinglichung on June 6, 2013

Mara Malavenda a leading member of SLAI-Cobas at Fiat Pomigliano was elected on the list of Rifondazione Comunista to parliament in 1996 but left the parliamentary group of PRC soon, she served as an independent MP up to 2001 and ran unsuccessfully under the label "Cobas per l'Autorganizzazione" for European parliament in 1999 and in 2005 for the PdCI (former right wing of PRC around Cossutta) ... can remember having read about SLAI-Cobas around 10 years ago, that they have a tendency towards "Anti-Americanism" and "Left-wing nationalism" but don't know if it is true

p.s.: unions which call themselves "sindacati autonomi" don't have anything to do with autonomous marxism, they are as far as I know either non-political or right-wing

syndicalist

11 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by syndicalist on June 6, 2013

yeksmesh

Is the USI-AIT the IWA-AIT affiliate in Italy or the non-affiliated one? As I seem to remember both use -AIT in their name.

Yes, it can be confusing. But the USI-AIT mention in this article is the actual USI, AIT Section.

USI-AIT: http://www.usi-ait.org Website of the AIT Section
USI-Roma: http://www.usiait.it Website of the split organization based in Rome.

Harrison

11 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Harrison on June 6, 2013

yeksmesh

Is the USI-AIT the IWA-AIT affiliate in Italy or the non-affiliated one? As I seem to remember both use -AIT in their name.

I thought the USI that split from the IWA lost its industrial sections and only operates through a policy of labour forums?

petey

9 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by petey on November 17, 2015

very interesting stuff, thanks.
(however, this is listed now on the page of recent posts, but is almost 2 1/2 years old?)

Spikymike

9 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Spikymike on November 25, 2015

These distinctions between the confusing variations of so-called base unions and what in the UK/USA are often referred to as 'business' or 'corporate' rather than say 'regime' unions are mostly still relevant I think?

Whilst I'm not a supporter of the ICP I noticed that this left communist organisation based mainly in Italy, more so than others in the left communist tradition, seemed to favour a form of syndicalist organisation as represented in particular by the last mentioned SI Cobas, which in terms of their support for the 'tactic of the united front from below' had at least some similarity in theory to the more recent specifically UK SolFed strategy if we ignore the different historical language usage as between anarchism and Marxist communism. See here for instance:
www.international-communist-party.org/English/TheCPart/TCP_002.htm#FirstCongress

Spikymike

8 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Spikymike on January 17, 2016

So just to add this more current report of another SI Cobas struggle in Italy from a different left communist organisation that I am more sympathetic to:
www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2016-01-11/italy-solidarity-with-the-workers-of-bormioli-di-fidenza
There is a footnote briefly explaining their slightly different approach to the SI Cobas.
The struggle reported on relates to logistics workers which the 'Angry Workers World' group have reported on and analysed more extensively in their libcom blogs as for instance here:
http://libcom.org/blog/ditching-fear-warehouse-workers-struggles-italy-their-wider-significance-12072015

bakuninja

8 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by bakuninja on January 18, 2016

Also article by Loren Goldner in Insurgent Notes: http://insurgentnotes.com/2015/12/struggles-in-logistics-in-italy/

Spikymike

7 years 8 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Spikymike on March 22, 2017

Now it seems a further division/split in the 'base union' movement in Italy involving the SI Cobas reported on and critically examined from a Left communist point of view here:
www.leftcom.org/en/articles/2017-03-21/two-comments-on-recent-events-around-sicobas-in-italy
Their basic point of criticism would presumably apply more broadly I think to anarcho-syndicalists such as SolFed ? but some of the details in relation to Italy are not so clear.

Entdinglichung

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Entdinglichung on May 18, 2018

http://www.international-communist-party.org/English/TheCPart/TCP_007.htm#Guide

A Guide: To be used to Identify the (Unfortunately) Numerous Rank and File Unions in Italy

To date, in Italy there are the following rank and file unions, which we list below in decreasing size order: USB, CUB, SI CoBas, Confederation CoBas, SLAI CoBas. As can be seen from this brief note, the picture is characterized by fragmentation in many organizations more or less at war with each other. This is a very negative factor for the rebirth of the class union and an expression of the political opportunism of the various leaderships.

1) USB (Unione Sindacale di Base): born in May 2010 from the union between RdB (Rappresentanze Sindacali di Base, Base Trade Union Representatives), SdL (Sindacato dei Lavoratori, Workers’ Union) and a minority share of the CUB (see below). It is the largest among the rank and file unions and has about 40 thousand members. The majority of the leadership stems from that of the RdB, which was born in the late seventies and early eighties in some categories of the civil service (Social security workers, Firefighters). From 1992, when the CUB was born, RdB had federated with them, forming the RdB-CUB. But in reality the union has never been substantial. The birth of USB in 2010 on the one hand represented a step forward towards the organizational unity of basic unionism, on the other a step backwards, as it led to an organizational break with the CUB and to the beginning of a war between the latter’s leadership and that of the newborn USB. RdB was a trade union established by a large majority on public sector workers. USB in recent years has also started to develop in the private sector, forming organizational units in some engineering factories, thanks to the influx of a group of militants and officials from the left opposition of the largest regime union in Italy, i.e., the CGIL (Italian General Labor Confederation).

In the private sector, USB had also undergone a good growth among workers in commerce, but last February an important part of the union structure in this sector, about half of the national one, with its top manager, abandoned USB, accusing the summits of authoritarianism, and merged into the CoBas Confederation. This is not the first episode of breaking up within USB, since there were those of February 2016 that led to the birth of SGB and two minor splits during the first congress in 2010, which caused the formation of micro local trade union organizations: ADL in Varese and SIAL CoBas in Milan. The growth and strengthening of this rank and file union, therefore, does not seem easy, obvious and straightforward.

2) CUB (Base Unitary Confederation): born in 1992 following the expulsion in Lombardy – the most industrialized region of Italy – of a left wing of the second trade union of the country, the CISL (Italian Confederation of Workers’ Unions). On the wave of a working-class struggle that took place in 1992-93, the CUB spread nationwide in various sectors of private business. From the very beginning, it has established a federative pact with RdB, with the intention of constituting a single and larger rank and file union, present in both the private and public sectors but, as mentioned above, things have gone differently. Over time, instead of developing, this union suffered a slow decline until, in 2010, due to the maneuver of the management group of RdB that led to the emergence of USB, the CUB suffered a severe blow, losing some pieces in favor of USB, which, judging by the mobilizations of recent years, seems to have further aggravated the decline. Its presence in the engineering factories, once scattered in many places, now appears confined to a few islands (eg Electrolux of Solaro, ILVA of Taranto). In any case we do not have reliable numbers about the membership of this union. In 2016 it signed a federative pact with SGB, a small trade union formed with a February 2016 USB spin-off, which mainly concerned the territorial union structures of Emilia, Lombardy and Venice.

3) SI CoBas (Intercategory Union of Base Committees): born in 2010 from a SLAI CoBas split, starting from two groups of members in logistics warehouses in the Milan area, it had considerable development in this sector. Today it has approximately 10 thousand members. It is developed above all in Lombardy and in Emilia, with minor groups in Turin, Alessandria, Genoa, Rome, Naples. It acts in concert with the ADB CoBas, which operates in the same sector in Venetia and Romagna. It is the only rank and file union to date able to deploy strikes that actually affect the productive activity of the sector in which it is installed at national level. The participation of its members in the demonstrations is very numerous, as in the last two cases, in Rome on 23 February and in Milan on 27 October last year, on the occasion of the general strike promoted by a part of the base syndicalism, succeeding in bringing to the streets a number of workers whom the other basic union organizations put together are hardly able to reach. So, despite having a number of members certainly less than that of USB, the ratio between this and that of the participants in the mobilizations is the best among the basic unions. The limit of this union lies in being confined, with very few exceptions, in the logistics sector and in organizing immigrant workers to a large majority. The second between these two factors, which certainly is also a merit, however, contributes with the first to shore up a sort of ghettoization of the union organization compared to the rest of the working class in Italy. It does not help to overcome this isolation – as we write in the introduction published here to the two leaflets distributed in Rome on 23 and 24 February – the idea of the national leadership to characterize the union in a party sense, based on the assumption that this should play a function of "substitution" in the face of the absence – in its view – of the communist revolutionary party.

4) CoBas Confederation: born in the mid-80s mainly among school workers and secondly in health care, developing then as a leopard scattered fur in other categories (eg post office, transport, urban hygiene), also in the private sector. Also this union has experienced a slow decline over time. In November last year the loss of a major part of the health federation was lost. In February, however, it received the influx of that part of the trade union structure of the commerce sector that abandoned the USB.

5) SLAI CoBas: born starting from 1992 in some big factories like the Alfa Romeo of Arese (Milan), Pomigliano (Naples) and Termoli, and SEVEL of Atessa. It also had a good organizational structure among the tram drivers of Milan, and was the protagonist in the great national mobilization of December 2002-January 2003, with wildcat strikes (outside the limits of the law). The latter group was expelled from the SLAI CoBas together with the majority of the Varese territorial structure, and formed the CoBas Workers Association, which then joined the CUB in 2010. The shutting down of the Arese factory, the bosses’ repression in that of Pomigliano, and finally the 2010 split that led to the formation of the SI Cobas, marked a drastic decline in this union.

There are also other small or very small organizations: in addition to the aforementioned ADL Cobas, SGB, ADL Varese, SIAL CoBas, there are also UNICoBas (mainly established among teachers), USI AIT (anarchist), USI (Roman splitting of USI AIT), the SOL CoBas (split from SI CoBas).

Ed

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Ed on May 18, 2018

I'd add to this that relations between different unions can often be VERY bad. At the moment, relations have particularly deteriorated between USB and SI Cobas where things have descended into physical violence.

The end of last year also saw two separate 'base union general strikes': one at the end of October organised by CUB, SGB, Si Cobas, USI-(ex)AIT and Slai Cobas, and one at the beginning of November organised by USB, Cobas and UniCobas.

The internal politics seem quite murky and not got time to go into what I've understood so far but it verifies the info in Entdinglichung's post that it's having a negative effect on working-class organising in Italy.