By Professor Sergio Sommaruga. According to recent studies, the image of the trade union movement in public opinion continues to be well below acceptable levels of legitimacy. This measurement is not new. We all know it.
Seeking explanations for this state of affairs should be on the list of concerns and needs of the union leaders. Because I am certainly convinced that the titanic tasks of thousands and thousands of women and men who make up and build the trade union movement from below have nothing to do with this wear and tear.
The gigantic solidarity task expressed in the economic and organizational support of the popular pots, the solidarity with the flooded and with the victims of the slowness and inefficiency of the government in the face of the onslaught of environmental inclemencies, the irreducible presence of the workers in every fight for work and salary in every corner of the country, are not the ones that undermine the legitimacy of the union movement.
So, if we reasonably conclude that the causes of the unrest are not in what the workers do on the bases. What are the causes of such annoying wear? Is it all due to the marketing campaign of the “enemy (of an enemy that is stated but never becomes a body)? Is it only the merits of others that cause this bad image to be had? How easy is this equation to solve?
As long as honest criticism and relentless self-criticism are seen and reasoned as a threat, we will never find a way to lucidly face a synthesis that overcomes our own shortcomings and errors. This is a problem of the leaders, not of the people. Or even more, this is a problem that we leaders provoke to the people.
We will be able to continue going to TV and radio to speak as if we were part of the show business and we will be able to continue seeing ourselves as public figures.
But as long as we are not capable of going back to the roots, we union leaders will continue to be the main people responsible for the tape that covers our eyes.
The main task of the union leaders is to develop actions and processes that unleash more class consciousness in our people, not to be ashamed and make it happen to others.
We have to go back to the roots.
