Sector collective negotiations, which have governed Italy’s union-employer relations for over twenty years, would appear to have hit a roadblock. In the metals sector, deadlocked discussions over renewing the national collective agreement have resulted in the Fiom-Cgil, Fim-Cisl, and Uilm-Uil unions declaring twelve hours of strike action over May and June as well as scheduling regional demonstrations for 09, 10, and 15 June. The retail sector’s unions have halted dialogue over renewing their national collective agreement (NCA) with the relevant employers’ body Federdistribuzione, as the sector’s employees stopped work on 28 May. On 05 and 06 June motorway workers went on strike demanding that their NCA be renewed. Social relations are strained, indicating a crisis with the negotiation model.
Even if Italy’s social disputes are less acute than in France, the fact that various sector level negotiations have stalled is just as much a sign of a hardening, or maybe of even long lasting change, in social dialogue. The financial crisis affected Italy more than other European countries and businesses have less leeway to respond to workers’ demands. Against this overall context, certain sector specific aspects still remain.
On 24 May in the metals sector, which has lost 300,000 jobs and has
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