The Green pass becomes mandatory on work in Italy tomorrow, October 15th, for public and private employees. On the eve of the entry into force of the obligation, the spotlight is on ports and transport, for the consequences that tomorrow could have on ordinary business.
PORT AND GREEN PASS
From Trieste, the media ‘pivot’ of the port system in these hours, comes the peremptory message of Stefano Puzzer, spokesman for the local dockers: “We block everything, the government must realize. They are losing touch with reality “, he tells Non è dell’Arena, on La7, reiterating his no to the Green pass and discarding the solution of free tampons for workers. The situation appears more fluid in other Italian ports.
“We talked to colleagues from the other ports, we’ll see on Friday. We asked the prefect for an appointment, we hope the government cancels the decree. I’m vaccinated, but I can’t accept to work quietly while my brothers, who shared these two years with me, they have to stay at home, “adds Puzzer. “The port of Trieste works 90% with exports: we want to see what European shipowners say when they see that their goods are blocked due to a decree adopted only in Italy “. And if there will be no changes to the rules?”We will continue until the Green pass is removed. We are not doing it only for dockers, we are doing it for all Italians “.
TO Genoa, where some companies are ready to take on the cost of tampons, unvaccinated dockers would be 20% of the total. “We are absolutely opposed to how the green pass and tampons issue is being handled. If the State believes that the vaccine should be mandatory, it must make it so, assuming its responsibilities and without delegating them to the workers, among whom there is so much fear . That other solutions are found. In Italy there are 12 compulsory vaccines; 13 would not make a difference “, Josè Nivoi, spokesperson for the Autonomous Collective Workers of the Port (Calp) and USB union leader of the port of Genoa, told Adnkronos.
“In Italy, according to law 81/2008 which reorganizes all the rules on the health and safety of workers, everything that concerns them must be borne by the company they work for. We want every employee to have the opportunity to swab before entering the port area, as a matter of greater security; a security that only the buffer can give and not the green pass. And these tampons have to be paid for by the company because it is not fair that a worker should lose half of his salary for these reasons. It is true that if you get the vaccine you are less likely to die but the green pass is not synonymous with safety “, he adds.
Further south, in the ports of Naples, Castellammare di Stabia and Salerno the risk that the introduction of the mandatory green pass could cause a block of activities seems very low, if not completely absent. The number of unvaccinated port workers in the three ports belonging to the Central Tyrrhenian Sea Port System Authority is estimated between 10 and 20%, numbers that do not worry unlike what happens in other Italian situations. “We are working so that the eventual moment of protest is reduced as much as possible”, Andrea Annunziata, president of the Adn Mar Tirreno Centrale, explains to Adnkronos.
“At the moment I would say that there are no particular signs of tension, absolutely. Honestly, I have no reason to foresee problems. At the trade union level I am not experiencing any kind of tension, or at least for now nothing has been communicated to me that makes me think this “, Antonio Davide Testi, managing director of Mct, Medcenter Contaner Terminal, the company that manages the terminal, told AdnKronos port of Gioia Tauro.
“We have no indication of reactions and strikes by workers or the risk of stopped goods or supply blocks – he adds -, then we also see how the government expresses itself, if it has finished speaking or if it has yet to express itself, because here every six hours there are adjustments to the things they write. Let’s see! But as the employer part of the workers we don’t have any concrete signs of problems “
TRUCKS AND GREEN PASS
The risk of a stop to activities also involves road transport. “When we had over 900 deaths a day and a positive rate of 4.6% we found a solution to not block transport: if it worked then, because today transporters should be carriers of the virus and be obliged to use the Green pass? “asks Paolo Uggè, president of Conftrasporto-Confcommercio, to Rainews 24.” 30% of heavy vehicle drivers come from European countries where there is no Green pass. Can’t you set a date, perhaps December 31, by which the vaccine must be compulsorily done? “.
The risk is to create “damage to the economy. We ask to apply the protocol signed between the ministry, trade associations and workers’ representatives. We ask for it for those who have not yet had the vaccine. We invite all transporters to get the vaccine, but if the protocol worked when the pandemic was very strong, why shouldn’t it work today? The data shows it was valid, why should we create the conditions to put the economy at risk? they have shown willingness to bear the cost “of the tampons.
If the road transport stops, does the country stop? “Exactly. It is not possible to think of replacing road transport with other methods. Is there a risk of spontaneous and violent initiatives? There is a risk, we do everything we can to prevent this from happening, we mobilize our representatives to explain that nothing can be solved with violence. However, those who govern the country need more listening, more humility and more ability to understand real problems “.
RISK OF EMPTY SHELVES
If the chain jams, what happens? “If no shared solutions are found on the obligation of the Green pass, the effects on the logistics system will be such that the hypothesis that supermarket shelves remain empty and that companies run out of raw materials and semi-finished products is not remote, is a possible scenario “in the coming weeks, says Umberto Ruggerone, president of Assologistica, the association of logistics companies, general and refrigerated warehouses, port, interport and airport terminal operators, raises the alarm on the possible repercussions of the obligation of green pass for private workers from October 15 in the logistics sector. And Ruggerone, in Adnkronos / Labitalia, remembers “that logistics in these 18 months of pandemic has never stopped, companies have resisted an impressive increase in costs, just think of + 600% of the cost of port freight rates “, he concludes.