The port coop at risk: summit and new hopes

The role that the Port System Authority of the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea will play in giving a life perspective and a future to the Single cooperative for port workers Flavio Gioia, so as to be able to save the jobs of the 150 employees at risk after the crisis and the problems that occurred at the via Ligea airport. The port dispute, after the alarms of recent weeks, reaches a crucial point: the Port Authority, in fact, according to the relevant regulations, can financially support the Salerno port company and support it in the recovery of the accounts to which the workers who are currently under the solidarity regime. On the other hand, the Port Authority will be the institutional entity that will have the task of mediating at the table between the cooperative and the major players in the port which will be held in the next few days.

In short, a sort of “institutional guarantee” that arrived after the discussion held in the Prefecture with input from the prefect, Francesco Esposito, with the participation, among others, of the trade unions, representatives of the port companies and the Municipality with the mayor, Vincenzo Napoli. The crisis arises from the fact that the large companies in the port are systematically bypassing the employment of cooperative workers (supplier of temporary labor) by hiring themselves or exchanging labor. By doing so, in fact, the working days of Culp Flavio Gioia they dropped from 25,000 to 16,000 and could decrease further to 13,000 in 2024thus causing a “void” in the cooperative’s accounts which must deal with the consequent drop in turnover and employment.

«The outcome of the meeting was positive. We would have a meeting with the major port companies including Salerno Container Terminal, Logiport and Amoruso. Contextually – explains Vincenzo D’Agostino, president of Culp Flavio Gioia – we have involved the Port Authority which can also make an economic contribution to port activities». Cautious optimism, therefore, but above all, as he underlines Gerardo Arpino, general secretary of the Salerno Filt CGIL, «we discussed constructive and concrete proposals and solutions». Beyond the support of the Port Authority, in fact, considers the secretary, «we pointed out that the cooperative is also the first partner of the Maritime Station and that, considering the increase in cruise traffic, it would be possible to think of a new employment sector linked to the loading and unloading of food from these ships». Not only that, because Arpino continues, «we must not only focus on the medium and short term but also imagine more prospective solutions, starting from the structural interventions necessary to enhance traffic in the port as in the case of the multi-storey project».