Caps on heads instead of helmets, saw in hand and bare torso. Forklifts driven in full summer clothing, people working around the vehicles and loads, safety shoes apparently replaced by gym shoes or open footwear. And then pallets cut, in at least one case, on shopping carts transformed for the occasion into unlikely workbenches. If this is the dress rehearsal for safety, at the Festa dell’Unità in Modena the curtain rose a little too early. The photographs, and perhaps this is the most peculiar detail, do not come from a raid by workplace safety inspectors nor from a lens hidden behind the construction site fence. They were published on the social channels of the event itself, being set up in the area of via Divisione Acqui, next to the Palasport. Images created to celebrate the commitment of volunteers and instead ended up raising a case: that of safety conditions during the assembly of the provincial PD festival structures, which started on August 20 and is scheduled until September 13, under the title — borrowed from Franco Battiato — “Questo sentimento popolare”.
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PRECAUTIONS ABSENT
A popular feeling, indeed. And, judging by some images, also quite spartan. Because around the large metal structures, kitchens, platforms, and materials to be moved, the precautions one would expect in an activity of this type seem, at least in the photographs, to have taken a summer break. Volunteering is a serious matter, of course. And precisely for this reason, it cannot become a free zone from rules. Goodwill is not a personal protective device. And political passion, however ardent, does not protect a foot from the fall of a load. Here lies the political point, even before the technical one. The PD, at every workplace tragedy, is among the first — often rightly — to ask for more inspections, more inspectors, more rigor, more culture of prevention. Worker safety is a flag waved in squares, conferences, and election campaigns. But then, when the site is at home, the flag risks getting caught in a shopping cart used as a workbench. The principle, evidently, changes perspective: very strict with others, much more distracted with their own volunteers. And the irony of the story does not end here. On August 28, Maria Cecilia Guerra, former undersecretary of Labor in the Draghi government, is expected at the Festa dell’Unità program, called to discuss precisely work and labor exploitation.
PD, photos of Festa dell’Unità preparations in the storm: safety? An option
Is safety an option for the PD? Looking at the images released by the PD of Modena, it seems so. Meanwhile…
A representative who deals with labor is a guest at a festival whose setup has been criticized for safety conditions: let’s say the agenda already offers a ready conversation starter. First the debate on labor, perhaps, and then a look at the shoes. Inevitable controversies. For the leader of the Lega in the City Council, Giovanni Bertoldi. “Precisely the PD, which talks so much about workplace safety,” he attacks. And he adds: “What we see should lead to a swift intervention by the competent authorities, but first of all by the party and the person responsible for safety and the festival.” For Bertoldi, beyond the “goodwill of the volunteers,” appreciable and indisputable, “to set up a site of that size professionals are needed to coordinate the work and enforce the rules. Otherwise, safety remains just a slogan good for salons or press conferences.” The Festa and the Modena PD, questioned about the matter, have so far chosen the no comment route. A response that, in this case, leaves a void difficult to ignore. Silence, too, in a similar case, proves to be a poor protection.
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FORZA ITALIA ATTACKS
Closing the circle is Antonio Platis, regional head of Forza Italia in Emilia-Romagna. “It is surprising the superficiality, or perhaps the arrogance, with which the provincial PD showed photos of its volunteers at work without safety measures,” he states. “Worker protection must always be upheld. I wonder what Maria Cecilia Guerra thinks, invited to the Festa dell’Unità precisely to talk about labor and labor exploitation.” The question, in the end, is simple and perhaps even banal. How many small sites have been stopped, how many construction entrepreneurs called out, how many homeowners fined because a helmet, proper shoe, sign, or protection was missing? And it is right that this happens when rules are violated. Safety cannot be optional. Unless the site is the home festival: there, evidently, even a red cap can become a political protection device. Until something falls from above, that is.
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