Marcianise - The feared crackdown at the former Jabil plant materialized Tuesday evening with the dismissal of Michele Madonna, regional director of the Unione Sindacale di Base.
A measure that the USB denounces as "extremely serious and unacceptable," the latest chapter in an intimidation strategy that began months ago with a barrage of disciplinary action.
Madonna's "fault," according to the union's reconstruction, was to have openly criticized the Jabil-Tma operation during public meetings and in front of workers.
An operation that USB bluntly defines as "an empty shell built to free Jabil from its responsibilities", devoid of the promised industrial and employment guarantees.
The strategy of repression
The dismissal of the union leader is part of a broader context of tensions within the plant. Before Madonna, other union representatives had already been targeted: Pasquale Zeno was fired, and Peppe Nappo and Giuseppe Nastro were suspended in a manner the union calls "illegitimate."
Added to these are the series of disciplinary actions that have affected numerous workers and the use of redundancy payments, which USB interprets as a punitive tool.
"This is an attack not only on Michele, but on trade union freedom, freedom of speech, and the dignity of all workers," reads the statement released by the organization. The union emphasizes that the plant is now "marked by intimidation, suspensions, and spurious protests," in a climate it describes as one of growing repression.
Appeal and mobilization
The USB's response was swift: it announced an immediate appeal against the disciplinary measure and an expansion of the solidarity campaign already underway to defend all affected workers. "Whoever attacks a union representative attacks everyone's freedom," the statement concludes, raising the stakes in a case that could become a test of union rights and the protection of freedom of criticism in the workplace.
The Jabil-Tma affair, already at the center of controversy due to uncertainties about the site's industrial future, is now escalating with a new conflict involving the issue of anti-union repression.
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