The Authority in charge of regulating the right to strike, which has taken over the hundreds of its deliberations from Parliament, has decided to punish USB with a fine of 2500 euros for the general strike proclaimed on March 25.

A strike proclaimed in defence of the safety and life of workers and citizens, while the tug-of-war between the government and the employers' associations was going on, pawing over everything. A strike imposed by the harsh reality of the pandemic, with hundreds of thousands of workers infected precisely because during the phase of the theoretical "all closed" more than 16 million people were at work.

USB was punished because it did not comply with the Commission's recommendation that strikes should be suspended during the pandemic and because it would not respect the legal notice, which is not provided for by law in situations of serious danger to workers' health.

USB was punished to give a further signal in anticipation of an autumn in which "social anger" could explode, as the Interior Minister said.

USB will appeal to the Court of Rome to ask for the annulment of the sanction and the respect of the legislative prescriptions, in the awareness that the primary role of the trade unions, certainly of USB, is that of the intransigent defence of the life, safety and dignity of the workers, and that these constitutionally protected values cannot in any way be sacrificed before the altar of productivity and profit.

USB