Meloni: public resources to those who respect workers. Landini: it's propaganda, there is no wage increase

"Workers' Day is an opportunity to renew the value of work as the foundation of our Republic and an instrument of dignity, freedom and social cohesion," said Senate President Ignazio La Russa.

"On 1 May Day we celebrate women and men who, with commitment and responsibility, contribute every day to the development of the country. On this day, it is crucial to emphasise the need for a constant and shared commitment against deaths at work," stressed the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Lorenzo Fontana.

"Work is dignity, security, stability, freedom and participation. A right to be recognised and protected every day. But the government of records and invented triumphs seems to remember it only on the first of May, with slogans and empty measures without perspective. Italia is a Republic founded on work: putting it truly at the centre means implementing the Constitution,' writes Anna Ascani (PD), vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies on X.

Criticism of the government measure also came from the M5S. "Today more than ever, 1 May represents the Day of Labour missed and betrayed: the precarious, the young, the exploited, or women forced to sign blank resignations, those who work exhausting shifts, or those who have no protection. The government had the opportunity and the duty to intervene and dedicate this day to them, but instead it has once again betrayed them with the Labour Decree. In this measure there is not a penny more for workers, but only an extension to 2026 of measures that had already expired in December. The resources then go to the companies and not directly into the workers' pockets," is the opinion of Pasquale Tridico, head of the 5 Star Movement delegation to the European Parliament.

CGIL, CISL and UIL are celebrating May Day in Marghera (Venice), under the slogan 'Decent work. Bargaining, new protections and new rights for a changing Italia in the era of artificial intelligence'. A common thread that will also characterise the traditional concert, from the afternoon in Piazza San Giovanni in Rome. In the square, the three general secretaries, Maurizio Landini, Daniela Fumarola and Pierpaolo Bombardieri, will be back on the same stage after the last Workers' Day, which had seen them in three different cities. Together again, even if, after the work decree approved by the government just in view of the First of May with incentives for the 'fair wage', there is no lack of differences of opinion on the measure, considered positive by Cisl and Uil and criticised by CGIL.

"To have obtained from the government the recognition that the contracts signed by the most representative organisations are those that speak of a decent wage and to have included the principle of conditionality for incentives to companies for me is an important result, it is a result not taken for granted that gives us the possibility to begin to discuss how to improve that wage to which the contracts now refer". These are the words of the Uil general secretary, Pierpaolo Bombardieri, from the May Day demonstration in Marghera.

On the same wavelength is the general secretary of the Cisl, Daniela Fumarola: 'The labour decree on the fair wage I believe is a step forward that had never been made before and is the first piece of that Pact of Responsibility that as Cisl we have been asking for since last year and that we think is the key to solving the problems facing our country. We are quite satisfied with the measure because three fundamental principles have been established: the first is that good bargaining is that signed by CGIL, CISL, and UIL, i.e. by the organisations that are comparatively more representative at the national level; the second is that the TEC, the Overall Economic Treatment, is the reference for wages but also for the set of rights and protections; a further important element is that companies that want to use the incentives can only do so if they apply the comparatively more representative contracts'.

The CGIL leader, Maurizio Landini, takes a different view: 'In Italia we have a problem called low wages. Wages that do not defend purchasing power and people who do not make it to the end of the month. The decree that the government has decided to make does not give an extra euro to workers, it does not increase wages, on the contrary the 960 million that are made available there, which were already there, so they only change their destination, they go to companies. So the ones making propaganda are not us, the ones making propaganda are those who want to pass off a decree as a wage increase that is not there. The problem is to substantially increase wages,' Landini continued, recalling the 'very important negotiations opened with the business associations' on representation. With Cisl and Uil having different ideas is normal, today in the square together for decent work and to ask for a wage increase".

"To think that the problems are not there means that we do not know how to see them. If work is not dignified, it is indignity and therefore means that the person who works does not have dignity. There are so many ways in which dignity is taken away: making it just a terminal of an algorithm that decides on its own, or the most despicable caporalato of all time that reduces the other to arms and not a person'. These were the words of the Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Matteo Zuppi, on the sidelines of the May Day celebration by the CGIL, CISL and UIL trade unions in Piazza Maggiore.