zona industriale no.4


(May 2001) Zona Industriale is a free militant news bulletin published by the Workers’ Net in Bologna Italia (Colletivo Rete Operaia). The name of the bulletin refers to the ‘industrial zones’ which are dispersed around the outskirts of Bologna, where the majority of the factories are located - manufacturing makes up to 50% of industry.
We print 3000 copies of the bulletin and distribute it in workplaces where we work: this can be done "clandestinely" by leaving it in toilets or on coffee machines. We also distribute it outside other firms (usually the main ones) and in workers’ public assemblies and demonstrations. Through the bulletin we try to map out what is going on in ‘our’ town in workplaces, filtering the different social issues (such as housing problems, social control, racism and sexism) through the everyday working and living experience of proletarians.
In the last year we’ve made contact with workers not only in manufacturing firms, where most of us work, but also with those working in co-operatives, school workers, bus-drivers, and some high school and university students who consider Zona Industriale, and other political materials we publish, interesting instruments of counter-information and intervention. These relations have generated a more open perspective and enabled a larger intervention, becoming more and more rooted in the workplaces and the local proletarian community.

This is a summary of the latest issue of Zona Industriale:

Osare Lottare, Osare Vincere!
This is a brief description of social issues such as immigration and mobility, housing problems and casualization. It focuses on the local situation from the workers’ point of view, and includes some considerations on the general situation in Italy regarding the strategy of the unions, party politics and the possibility of autonomous workers’ action. We also try to briefly summarise part of our political viewpoint and strategy for intervention (this is developed in the other articles too). In this way we attempt to underline the ‘weak’ points in the work organization, in order to show the workers where the best chances are to develop their attack against the bosses, to undermine the management’s needs in controlling the flow of production and the workforce itself. We try to suggest the development of connections between workers of different branches, especially between striking workers, so as to stimulate the ability to have a heavier ‘social impact’, in order to develop our ‘social force’. Our aim is to focus the workers’ attention on the production and distribution process as the material basis for their power, as a practical channel of communication between workers of the same production network, as a starting point of a self-organization process against capital’s accumulation needs. For example, in north-eastern Italy (Lombardia, Emilia-Romagna, Piemonte, Veneto) temp workers make-up in some cases a third or more of the whole workforce in a firm. Making up a ‘critical mass’ in the production process, the bosses and unions find it difficult to manage when it organizes itself (the rate of unionized temp workers is extremely low), even though there is the threat of unemployment because they are without permanent contracts. We see these workers as the part of the class that expresses, because of their position in society, specific needs (temp workers are mobile workers and mainly immigrants with housing and "permission" papers problems). While their previous working and living experience, such as moving from a country to another, from a job to another, their desires of emancipation from their previous living conditions (civil wars, extreme patriarchal society, extreme poverty etc.) enriches the proletarian experience. In some strikes, like at Ducati Motor they were in the front-line of the pickets and were the ones who put the heaviest pressure on the union members elected in works council in order to fight against out-sourcing and for being taken-on permanently. Their demand, to all being hired on permanent contracts by Ducati-motor, was not compatible with the economic and political needs of the company. That is, on the assembly lines they need casual workers with 3 months contracts: just-in-time production needs just-in-time workers; zero stock production needs a zero stock work force in order to increase the rate of exploitation. This is an important example of the level of the clash between the needs of the workers and the needs of capital.

In each issue of Zone Industriale there are reports/articles on some of the factories in Bologna where we and other comrades work. In this issue these are:

C’è del marcio a Disneyland…
Bonfiglioli Riduttori. This company has 7 plants in our region. Some of us work in the assembly plant. The article is on the continuous over-time, such as Saturday morning shift, imposed upon the workers, and supported by unions; the progressive casualization of the work-force by hiring only temp-workers through temp agencies; the intensification of work rhythms through the re-introduction of assembly lines instead of team-work. These tendencies of the work process increase absenteeism, especially among the temp workers, and also increase the rate of ‘waste’ pieces by nearly 30%: this causes a lot of problems for management and union reps. An article in the last issue of Zona Industriale looked at how the management faced these problems and the workers' behaviour in the face of this, considering this behaviour as positive aspects of workers’ resistance against managers’ attempts to improve productivity. This article provoked the reaction of the management who called the political police (Digos) while they asked the union reps. on the works council to provide the names of the people who publish the bulletin. They also suggested that the supervisors should talk to the 'most responsible' workers and advise them to be ‘careful’ around Zone Industriale members!

Si parla tanto di sicurezza…
Meliconi. This is a metal factory with more than 150 workers, producing plastic, metal and wood goods such as small furniture, dustbins etc… The article is about the working conditions in the factory, focusing on environmental and health problems. A comrade working here is trying to raise awareness of these problems, identifying problems such as the toxicity of some materials, the lack of precautions in some working areas and the continuos overtime.

W la lotta dei lavoratori…
This is a brief note on the strikes and demonstrations at different Arcotronics plants (electronic plants with about 1200 workers) against the introduction of Saturday shifts, worsening working conditions and the attempts to improve the divisions between permanent and casual workers.

Intervista ad un operaio alla Ducati-Motor
An interview with an immigrant worker from Cameroon working at Ducati-Motor (a metal factory employing about 1100 workers) on his working and living conditions (mobility, problems of racism, housing, permission papers etc).

Una favola senza lieto fine…
This is a leaflet which was distributed at Ciba-Speciality, a chemical factory with 450 workers, which is going to be down-sized because 75% of production is to be out-sourced to the Puebla plant in Mexico. The comrades who formed a workers’ committee here some years ago, outside of the unions and the works council, are trying to overcome the union strategy of occasional and useless strikes. They describe briefly this transnational firm’s strategy in order provide a better understanding of what is going on and what the perspectives for action are now.

"Sulle piccole fabbriche" e "Le scarpe…"
In these articles there is a description of the working conditions experienced by women in small factories employing less than 15 workers. These factories usually produce parts for other bigger firms: they are sort of out-sourced departments where people work more, earn less and the supervisor is the owner himself, or the owner’s son, wife, etc. while the rhythms and rate of work are imposed by the costumer-firm. They are sweat-shops with a continuous pressure to work and strict controls on the workforce. The articles describe these situations and include some suggestions to change the present conditions. In our opinion, workers are able to understand their power only in looking at the full production process: considering themselves as a link in a bigger chain that can be broken starting from the smallest plant to the biggest one; this is one channel of communication that we try to foresee. We suggest the development of connections between workers in the same industrial zone, using meeting points such as pubs, bus-stops and out-sourced canteens in order to build a different balance of forces and a proletarian community, essential for helping the workers who are under a disadvantage, like those in the small plants.

The second part of Zona Industriale is dedicated to different sectors:

Contro l’auto-sfruttamento
This discusses the small agricultural co-operatives in order to show the real working conditions that exist there and the opportunities to change them.

Il volto umano dello sfruttamento
This article describes the unbelievable situation of some handicapped workers who are employed for six hours a day, five day a week in a sweat-shop assembling plastic and electronic parts such as plugs, taps and are managed by a priest. They are asking for more pay because at the moment their wage is very low - about 1/8 of the average pay for this kind of job. This kind of workhouse is disguised as positive social activity, a way of integrating people into ‘society’: the same can be seen in prison-labor; and ‘communities’ in Italy where drug addicts are sent instead of prison, where they work for no pay: this is the means to re-integrate them into ‘society’.

Intervista a un lavatore della ATC
An interview with a bus driver involved in the ATC bus-drivers struggle in Bologna, where 1200 bus drivers work. The bus drivers are fighting to hire all the part-time workers as regular ones and against out-sourcing. The company has decided not to hire people for some years, even if people retire, increasing the rates and rhythms of work and extending working time. In response the bus-drivers have struck more than once, organised demonstrations and have stopped ‘scab’ buses. During the first strike they went into the management building, despite the opposition of the union, in order to bring their own claims to the managers. Some unions and the company, after the strikes, want to sign a bargain hiring less than half of the part-time workers while increasing the working time for all by an extra 4 minutes ­ and this is unpaid! Some workers, however, are opposing this by threatening to strike again.

Risorse inumane
This is an article about causalization in TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile), a call center in Bologna. TIM is one of the main phone companies in Italy (see the website for other articles on this workplace).

Tempo pieno…
An article on the cutting of a social service for workers’ children. Previously it was possible for workers’ children to remain free at school during the afternoon but now this service is to be cut as part of the down-sizing process of school workers. One effect of this is that it a source of business for private and catholic schools.
Send everything to:
DIEGO NEGRI CP 640, 40124 Bologna Italia
www.free.de/prol-position
ti14264@iperbole.bologna.it


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