CGIL National Steering Committee approves the report and conclusions of the Secretary General Maurizio Landini.

We firmly renew the condemnation of Ukraine invasion by Putin's Russia: it is an act out of history, and a crime against democracy. February 25th great rallies in Rome as well as the numerous demonstrations that were promoted by CGIL in cooperation with several associations and the pacifist movement throughout the entire country have shown how much a mobilization and a choice of field are necessary to prevent Europe and the whole world to be pushed into a destructive spiral. It is for this reason that we will also be in Florence on March 12th and we will take part in the rally against the war, in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, promoted by the mayors of 100 European cities with the presence of the mayor of Kiev.

CGIL will also take part in the international day of mobilization in solidarity with Ukraine and for peace announced on March 15th by the European Trade Union Confederation and by the International Trade Union Confederation.

Even before the conflict broke out, CGIL immediately appealed to European and international diplomacy to reach a negotiated solution. Now we need to put away weapons, not send new weapons, work hard and at every level for an immediate ceasefire and for a truce, providing humanitarian aid and support to the populations in Ukraine and to the thousands of pacifists that are being arrested in Russia. This is the commitment that international institutions, starting with the UN and the governments of the countries of the European Union, must assume, rejecting the destructive logic of war by achieving peace through a true negotiation.

In reiterating our full solidarity with the Ukrainian people and with the Ukrainian trade unions, CGIL undertakes the commitment to implement all those initiatives that allow the welcome and hospitality of all those fleeing from every war, and it does so in constant relationship with humanitarian organizations.

To support the purchase of basic necessities and to provide assistance to refugees, CGIL launched a fund raising campaign and opened a bank account dedicated to "Ukraine Emergency".

This is not the war of Russians against Ukrainians, but the war of Putin and his regime which despises democracy and the freedom of peoples. This is why we feel firmly committed to building peace initiatives.

The pandemic and the crisis due to climate change had already strongly posed the need to affirm a new model of development. That is made even more urgent today by Russia’s war on Ukraine. As a matter of fact, the conflict makes the struggle for a new and different quality of development more pressing. It is precisely on this ground that the very future of the European Union is at stake: on its ability to give new impetus to international institutions and cooperation in the crucial fields of research and innovation, on the capacity to produce quality work by aiming for new environmentally and socially sustainable productions. This ground is all the more necessary due to the economic and social effects that the ongoing conflict will have in Italy and Europe.

The increase of inflation, driven by the prices of energy goods, is worsening the prospects for the country's recovery. All that gives a further blow to the purchasing power of wages and pensions by posing that issue, along with the fight against precarious work affecting young people and women in particular, as a central element of the trade union initiative. It is a framework that would require a change of pace in the quality of government interventions and an acceleration of investments in order to grasp and govern the processes of change in the country's production specialization, starting with the digital and green transition.

There is the risk that the National Plan for Resilience and Recovery (PNRR) will not be sufficient to counter these effects if not adequately accompanied by additional European and national resources aimed at giving a change to the country's development policies. A picture of real emergency that goes hand in hand with unsolved issues: the fight against precariousness, the pension reform, the tax reform and the fight against tax evasion, the many crisis situations that are still open in the country. The enduring absence of industrial policies and an active role of the State in development policies is putting at risk strategic sectors for the country's productive future: from automotive to energy policies, from telecommunications to credit, from tourism to culture and research, from transportation to logistics. Thus the future of the country is put at risk.

It is in an unprecedented context that requires maximum involvement of social actors and trade unions by the Government but which instead is determining a renewed disintermediation.

For all those reasons and in order to give continuity to the mobilizations and to the strike of December 16th 2021, CGIL steering committee mandates the National Secretariat to implement all the necessary initiatives, also together with CISL and UIL, to determine the necessary concrete responses to face this phase which is risking to rapidly worsen people's conditions, increase social and territorial inequalities, block the country's sustainable development and growth.