«We welcome with serenity a decision which represents a point of justice for us and which allows us to continue to look ahead with even greater conviction». This is what Fabio Tomaino, Confederal Regional Secretary CONF.IAL Calabria, declares, commenting on the order of 30 September 2026 with which the Court of Crotone rejected the appeal brought by the UIL Territorial Chamber of Mayors of Crotone on the issue of the premises in Via Assisi.
In the reasons, the Court notes that, at the time of termination/withdrawal from the rental contracts, Tomaino was the legal representative of UIL and, therefore, entitled to act in the name and on behalf of the organization. The Judge also notes that such conduct has not been demonstrated to be contrary to the will of the organization and concludes that the conditions for reinstatement action do not exist.
The appeal was therefore rejected and UIL was ordered to reimburse the legal costs of Tomaino and the other parties indicated in the provision. «I don’t consider this matter a personal matter – continues Tomaino -. Behind that choice there was and is a management group that spontaneously and democratically decided to distance itself from a union organizational model that it no longer considered acceptable. This is the dimension that I am interested in highlighting today.” «We have chosen another path because we believe in a local union. A union that strengthens territorial controls rather than distances itself from them, that lives in the workplace and is present exactly where the discomfort, difficulties and demands of workers arise.” According to Tomaino, «the organizational logics that we contested increasingly tended to centralize roles and functions, weakening that territorial presence which for us represents the very essence of trade union action. Problems cannot be understood from a distance: you have to stay close to the people who experience them.”
«And it is on this path that we are continuing to build our path in CONF.IAL: being among the people, listening, transforming people’s difficulties into disputes and disputes into proposals and results». Finally, Tomaino calls for a different model of participation: «We are not interested in worker participation proclaimed in slogans and forgotten when the time comes to decide. We don’t want to lock ourselves in rooms to sign agreements that affect people’s future without those same people being informed, listened to and involved.” «The participation we imagine must be true, concrete and verifiable in daily activity. And that’s what our leadership team is trying to demonstrate every day.” «We will therefore continue with serenity, without personal claims and without a spirit of revenge. But with an even stronger conviction: a union can define itself as people only if, first of all, it is capable of truly being the workers’ union. We have chosen to stay there: in the territories, in the workplace and among the people.”