Maurizio Fumante, 50 years old, a trade unionist for Uil-Trasporti of Reggio Calabria, managed to escape the attempted collision by a car, which immediately afterwards drove away at high speed. The serious episode occurred near the central station of the Ferrovie dello Stato in Reggio Calabria, where Fumante is responsible for cleaning trains on behalf of a private company. Fuming, in December last year, he had already been the victim of a previous episode: at the end of his work shift, he had found on the bonnet of his car a box containing a bullet, a bottle of flammable liquid and an intimidating note against his commitment as a union representative of Uil-Trasporti.
“We can no longer tolerate that civil commitment and the protection of workers’ rights become a reason for risk to personal safety. What happened to our representatives – says Giuseppe Rizzo, general secretary of Uil Calabria – is a direct attack not only on the people involved, but on the entire trade union movement and on the values of democracy and legality that we represent. A trail of unacceptable violence. These episodes are not isolated cases, but are part of a climate of growing tension which sees workers’ representatives too often exposed to unacceptable attacks”.