by Rebecca Luisetto
Colognola ai Colli, protests by workers on strike for the plant which will be closed in January 2025: «Many promises for nothing»
«Non we are garbage workerswe are not disposable, we have rights” are the words shouted from megaphones and written on the white banners hanging from the railings of the Sunlight European Battery Assembly (Seba) in Colognola ai Colli during Tuesday morning’s strike.
The 74 workers at risk
The battery company on Thursday, without warning, sent a pec to the Fim-Cisl and River-Cgil syndicates explaining that the Verona office will close at the end of January. Immediately afterwards, an emergency meeting was called for the employees (74 in total), who were called to the meeting room and met faced two members Greeks from the board of directors, faces unknown to them, and their lawyer from the Milan Bar. «Out of the blue they told us the company was closing. I have two dependent daughters, a mortgage to pay and I am a single mother. I have to get by on my own,” she said Giovanna De Miccoa worker who, after almost 2 years of employment, suddenly found herself without the certainty of a job. «I don’t even know if I will be able to send my daughter on a trip – continued the worker -. I have a lot of expenses to deal with. The agency I work for has already told me that there are no companies hiring at the moment and that at most they can give me 800 euros a month for unemployment, but I don’t live there. Every morning I wake up and ask myself if I’m dreaming or if this is really the reality that awaits me.” What leaves you speechless is the fact that the company was doing wellso much so as to invest in employees with production bonuses and training trips. «In groups they accompanied some workers and employees to Greece and Germany to show them how to work in the other factories of the multinational – concluded the worker -. Then in last year’s assemblies they promised us heaven and earth, they assured many of us of a permanent contract. They deceived us.”
Rights and work
There is also one employee to whom the same promise was made Nicole Sabaini. «They assured me of this when I returned in June, after they fired me in April because I got married to my partner – said the woman -. Just to not pay for my leave wedding in May, which in fact the state pays for one week and the company pays for one week, they left me at home for a month. They called me back right after my honeymoonasking me to go back to work for them, because maybe they understood that I was worth something.” However, there are those who, due to an injury, would have even suffered retaliation against themselves. «I had knee surgery and when I returned I struggled to stand for 8 hours straight. When I asked for some rest too many, out of spite, my manager moved me from the quality control department to the production department” explained Giulia Nardi, who has been part of the company for 3 years now. The worker then took the megaphone in her hands: «We are here today, in the cold, fighting for our rights and for our jobs. Where are our managers? Where are our directors?”.
“It’s not anger, it’s disappointment”
In the meantime there are those who have the head elsewherejust think about the house purchase contract you just signed, bought after 35 years of work. «The news was a strong blow for me, I just opened a mortgage – these are the words of Simone Ghin, warehouse worker who has been working in the company for 3 years now –. I don’t feel angry, rather I feel very disappointed, they discarded us without even a little warning. I still hope that the situation can be resolved. I have given so much for this company, is this the answer?”. The unions were also surprised to say the leastwho had not taken into account the fact that Seba, a solid local company, could close its doors and that it would do so following these methods. «We are deeply saddened by how the company organized everything – said Girolamo Bracco, Fiom CGIL official from Verona Est -. The owners did not think to contact the union parties and anticipate what their intentions were, i.e. to leave more than 70 families on their knees.”
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