A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #11-26 - Folding our arms, joining the struggles. Attacking logistics strikes (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Minister Piantedosi made this explicit over a year ago, responding to a 
question about blockades in large-scale retail logistics centers and 
announcing his intention to introduce a new offense with heavy criminal 
penalties (up to two years in prison) for anyone who impedes the free 
movement of goods. An administrative offense transformed into a criminal 
offense: all this aimed at specifically targeting protests organized, 
often without warning, near major distribution hubs. In short, an attack 
on logistics blockades organized by some grassroots unions in what has 
been one of the most combative work sectors for several years.

The offense was actually introduced with the first "Security" Decree Law 
48/2025. Now it's the turn of a new attack on logistics workers and 
grassroots union organizations, this time launched by the so-called 
"Guarantee" Commission (though it would be more accurate to call it the 
"strike-killing" commission).

Italy has some of the most restrictive anti-strike legislation in Europe 
(Laws 146/90 and 83/2000), as recently highlighted by the European 
Committee of Social Rights (EU).

This legislation was created in the 1990s to curb the spread of 
grassroots unionism; however, worsening provisions are lurking, and the 
"Guarantee" Commission is zealously responding, interpreting existing 
laws increasingly restrictively.

Last December, fines were already imposed on unions that had called a 
general strike on October 3, 2025, against the genocide in Gaza and in 
support of the Sumud Flotilla, blocked in international waters by the 
Israeli navy. The pretext was a lack of advance notice. In this case, a 
well-established jurisprudence had been overturned, which had recognized 
similar strikes as legitimate both at the outbreak of the first Gulf War 
and against Italy's participation in the war in Yugoslavia (the famous 
bombing of Belgrade ordered by "comrade" D'Alema in 1999).

But countless cases of transport strikes declared illegitimate for often 
laughable reasons, such as coinciding with the Winter Olympics or even 
the Perugia Chocolate Fair, are no longer counted.

This hatred toward transport and logistics workers is easily explained, 
in Italy's current climate of latent war, by the phrase of an American 
general (and adopted by EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kobilius): 
"Infantry wins battles, but logistics wins wars."

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, a progressive but rapid 
militarization of railways and transportation has been underway (the UN 
has addressed this in several articles), and the recent blockade of the 
Strait of Hormuz has clearly demonstrated the damage to the global 
economy that can be caused by the interruption of the movement of 
essential goods.

Now comes Commission Resolution 26/88 (March 11, 2026), which extends 
the restrictions set by anti-strike laws to logistics, effectively 
equating it with essential public services. It introduces strict advance 
notice requirements, imposes cooling-off procedures, and defines 
essential services in the various work segments of goods handling, from 
receipt to storage to distribution.

This interpretative twist is fueled by the servility of the 
CGIL-CISL-UIL trade unions, which in the National Collective Bargaining 
Agreement for "Logistics, Freight Transport, and Shipping" (renewed in 
December 2024) expressly accepted this formulation under the heading 
"Essential services to be guaranteed":

"The parties acknowledge that, in accordance with the guidelines 
expressed by the Strike Guarantee Commission, the need to ensure the 
regular supply of the above-mentioned goods includes, in addition to 
transportation, the entire logistics chain, from handling to 
warehousing, from custody to conservation."

This broad definition would allow any strike to be reined in.

This crackdown is significantly influenced by the fact that the 
logistics sector is one of the most conflict-ridden sectors. A sector 
where conditions of exploitation are brutal, national labor contracts 
are worthless (with the total indifference of the very same concerted 
unions that signed them), and the massive use of subcontracting and 
bogus self-employment allows for further squeezing of a predominantly 
immigrant workforce.

A climate of hyperexploitation that has fostered the development of 
grassroots unionism and beautiful examples of worker struggle and 
solidarity, which attempts have been made to crush at every turn, 
through murderous violence and even criminal prosecution. Suffice it to 
recall the case of the grassroots unionists in Piacenza, charged in 2022 
with "criminal conspiracy" for having conducted their activities in a 
dutifully confrontational manner (this is nothing new in Italian 
history: since the First International, the crime of "criminal 
conspiracy" has been used against anarchists and "subversives" in general).

This is a new chapter in the repression, combined with the latest 
security measures enacted (most recently, the second "Security" 
Decree-Law, currently under consideration by Parliament for conversion 
into law) and those currently underway, against which we must mobilize 
forcefully. We must broaden our struggles to halt the country's slide 
toward war and a police state, and to guarantee the freedom of all.

Mauro De Agostini

https://umanitanova.org/incrociare-le-braccia-intrecciare-le-lotte-attacco-agli-scioperi-nella-logistica/
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