From 24 to 28 November the Labor Brigades of the national Flai CGIL and Calabria will travel the countryside of the Gioia Tauro plain, and beyond, to meet agricultural workers who reach these territories every year for the olive and citrus fruit harvest.
The initiative is part of the battle carried out for years by the union to combat the phenomenon of gangmastering and labor exploitation with the street union. For five days a brigade of trade unionists from all over Italy will talk about rights and protections in agriculture, trying to work so that gangmastering comes out of invisibility and that voice and rights are restored to those who work the land.
The Labor Brigades will start from Gioia Tauro and then move to Riace, Bagnara, San Ferdinando.
In those days in the tent city of San Ferdinando the “Casa dei Poppi” container will be inaugurated where Flai will be present to help workers with the residence permit procedures and everything related to employment protection. The container was donated with a protocol by the Municipality of San Ferdinando.
The campaign will close on November 28th in San Ferdinando with the conference “What reception model for workers in agriculture?”
Since 2009, the FLAI (Federation of Agroindustrial Workers) has launched the “Street Union” project to come into direct contact with agricultural workers, protecting and representing them through a mobile union that overcomes the barriers of traditional offices. The Labor Brigades, made up of militants and union leaders, are the operational arm of this initiative, active during the main collection campaigns throughout Italy.