From Pompeii to Bari mounts protest of cultural heritage precarious workers. They stole our future

There is a reality that the sensationalism of the announcements does not take into account: that of the precarious workers of the contracting companies that work at archaeological sites, the same sites that are always in the headlines, as happened just yesterday for the Park of Pompeii, where the House of the Lovers was reopened after forty years. Behind these events for which we all rejoice lies a reality that is not quite as comforting, as denounced by the workers who, in recent days, have given rise to a tight protest that started at the end of January precisely from Pompeii on the initiative of the Private Labor Cobas. The workers’ demonstrations have since spread to Herculaneum, where last Sunday three hundred workers, including reception, security, cleaning and guided tours workers protested against their working conditions and announced that the agitation will extend to the other sites in Campania (Reggia di Caserta and Oplonti), but may even go further.

The Cobas, in particular, denounce that in the face of increased visitors and receipts from the parks of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the sites would continue to abuse contracted labor, since the functions of reception, orientation, supervision and cleaning are provided by staff employed by private companies from which the state receives contracts to manage the services. Workers in contracting companies are almost always hyperspecialized, with degrees that often go beyond a master’s degree, but compared to state employees, the Cobas denounce, they have lower wages and fewer protections regarding health and safety in the workplace. What the workers are demanding, then, is a grade level appropriate to their duties.

The voice of the unions has been joined in recent hours by that of young people working in the contracting companies of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism sites, who have sent a letter to Il Mattino journalist Francesca Mari: “the situation of us young people,” they denounce, “in many we find ourselves to be graduates, some hyperspecialized, occupying positions of graduates. One wonders what hope those without a college degree can have. We are the wrecks of a country that not only stole our future, but also took our present. [...] This has created the paradox of youth: a generation that, on the one hand, remains immature because it lives on the fewest things, gossip and social media, while on the other hand it shows itself to be older than it is because of the resignation that characterizes it. They want to take away our right to speak, and they do so with threats that hover in the air but are sometimes concrete: if you want to keep your job, you have to shut up.”

What is needed, the letter says, is “to get out of the logic of power and submission.” “We,” the young workers add, “as employees in the private sector have less of a voice than those who work in the public sector, in fact, we have no voice at all, but we should not be afraid to speak out. Moreover, if we join forces we can go far. We also need to get out of the logic of compromise, what many unions have accustomed us to. Clearly, compromise is not to be condemned in its entirety, but it is in no way a substitute for demanding rights, as rights are not concessions and should not be bartered away, otherwise we are not talking about rights but rather about contentions, or favors that we have to reciprocate in another way, often by giving up other rights. With good reason we often think, or hear, that those who are out of work and cannot find a job have had their dignity stolen from them. Unfortunately, however, in this country the argument also applies to those who have jobs. Very often workers are mere bargaining chips between principals, firms offering services and the unions themselves, and indeed, because they have a job, in spite of the many who remain unemployed, according to the current mentality they must accept everything without question.”

The problems are identified mainly in atypical contractual forms (from mini-contracts of work-for-hire to bogus part-time contracts), in the low level of salaries, in the lack of adequate space, in the non-compliance with safety conditions, and in the worsening of working conditions due to staff shortages (in fact, it often happens that they do not want to or cannot hire and pay for more staff, which is why the excess work falls on the staff already employed). “In France,” the young workers conclude, “employees of the Louvre went on strike in May 2019 due to the unmanageable situation caused by overcrowding in the museum, which, due to staff shortages, posed a security risk. In Italy, however, we hail the initiative that puts us in the same condition as our French colleagues. And while the numbers rise, the money cashes in, and the news abounds, we overlook one very important thing: in Italy, the preservation of the heritages of humanity is carried out on the very skin of human beings.”

Campania’s precarious workers are not the only ones protesting, however. Tomorrow, at 2 p.m., a flash mob will be held in Piazza Cesare Battisti in Bari, organized by the Arts in Freedom association , composed of young cultural designers, artists, communicators, sociologists and producers, to affirm the importance and social, cultural and economic value of artistic and cultural work, “often the object of commonplaces, little institutional recognition and social marginality,” reads the association’s manifesto. “For this reason,” the association declares, “we aim to promote and fortify the figure of the artist and cultural worker, through the facilitation of dialogue between different actors, to nurture innovative processes of a cultural, entrepreneurial and civic nature.”

Pictured: workers demonstrate in Pompeii.

From Pompeii to Bari mounts protest of cultural heritage precarious workers. They stole our future

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