the union without members proclaims a strike and sends schools and families into haywire

VENICE – A school strike has been declared for tomorrow in the Northeast, and in the rest of Italy. Potentially affected are all personnel: teachers, executives, administrative, technical and auxiliary, tenured and precarious. It was announced by the Size (European autonomous school and ecology union), an online organization that is not even registered by the Aran (Agency for the negotiating representation of public administrations), given that there are no proxies of members or votes for the elections. But so be it. Two reasons communicated to the Ministry of Education by the president and treasurer Francesco Orbitello, Sicilian “science and support” teacher: on the one hand, they are asked to “examine our innovative political-economic proposal, which aims to improve the situation in Italian schools”; on the other, they are asking for “provisions for the knowledge and promotion of the blood group diet in educational institutions of all levels”. It would already make you smile like this, were it not that the mere proclamation of an abstention – probably destined to collect zero-point support – was enough to unleash a domino effect of bureaucracy and inconvenience on institutions, families, transport companies, companies in the catering, service cooperatives, healthcare companies, municipal administrations and local police.

THE CIRCULARS
Reading is believing the circulars that, from one corner of the peninsula to the other, school principals have had to issue these days to notify all the realities involved in various capacities. Just to name a few in Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia, the comprehensive school “Serena” of Treviso informs that “it is not possible to make reliable forecasts on joining the strike and on the services that individual schools will be able to guarantee”, so parents are invited “to accompany the child making sure in person on the smooth running of the lessons which will be communicated on the same morning”. Or in Belluno the Itis “Segato” and the Ipsia “Brustolon” let it be known that “final scrutiny”, “toxic waste disposal”, “plant supervision” and “payment of salaries” will be ensured, but evidently not the lessons , given that “as regards the other services, it is not possible to guarantee their delivery”. As will happen to the “Deganutti” comprehensive school in Latisana (Udine), which therefore urges mothers and fathers “not to leave their children at the entrance, without having first ascertained that the complex is open, that the lessons are running smoothly and cafeteria service”.

THE TAXES
All this probably for nothing, or almost, judging by the national participation rates in the last three strikes called by Saese: 0.01% on 12 November 2021 and 0.41% on both 21 January and 8 April 2022. But yes he knows that the participation of a single teacher or a single janitor can be enough to send the system into a tailspin. All this to support a diet that is branded with the “false” red stamp by the Higher Institute of Health, since “it has no scientific basis”, so much so that “no study conducted in favor of hemodiet has given results that demonstrate its ‘effectiveness’ (although the Saese offers members ‘a personalized online diet’ and ‘prepared through an algorithm’, upon payment of 20 euros).

THE INFORMATION
As the last of the “main successes achieved”, dated December 11, 2020, the association claims this: “The Ceds reveals that a total of 26382 workers are registered in Saese, uniformly distributed throughout the national territory”. It is a pity that the only act of the European Committee of Social Rights (Ceds, in fact) issued that day is the declaration of inadmissibility of the complaint presented by the union, as the Guarantee Commission for the right to strike had declared two protests proclaimed in 2020 unjustified Well, the body headed by the Council of Europe has established (the translation from the French is ours) that the Saese «cannot be considered as a representative trade union», due to the lack «of information on the number of members it represents and whether or not it has conducted collective bargaining on behalf of those members.’ Final note: if journalists want to contact the organization for a reply, they cannot use the telephone or e-mail, but must fill out a form which turns out to be a “request for membership”…

Read the full article
in Il Gazzettino

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