SYNDICALISM IN ITALY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17632, 19 November 1920, Page 7

SYNDICALISM IN ITALY.

FAILURE IN OPERATION. F.I.A.T. DIRECTORS RESIGN. .LONDON. Oct. 28. The correspondent of the Times at Milan states that at a general meeting of the shareholders of the F.I.A.T. Signer Agnelli, the director, and all the members of the managing board, resigned, on the ground that it was no longer possible profitably to conduct the company.

This is regarded as evidence of the gravity of the crisis in Italian industries The company started in 1900 with 50 workmen, and by 1914 had grown to a staff of 4000. At present it employs 100,000 men, and pays annually 150,000,000 lire (£6,000,000 at the pre-war rate of exchange) in wages. The chairman's report stated that the directors had always cared for the welfare of their employees, yet the demands of the latter grew limitless. In the first three months of the present year an average of 2000 to 3000 workmen crossed their arms daily. April brought a general strike, and then in September the agitation culminated in the seizure of 14 factories belonging to the firm. The Government did not intervene, but accepted the principle of syndicalism. After this victory, the report continued, the effrontery of the workmen could not be resisted. They dismissed 964 men and 40 experts, owing to the latter not approving of the movement, and once 10,000 workers crossed - their arms for seven hours for a trivial cause. The result was that discipline, organisation, and authority were destroyed, and the directors were afraid to undertake new orders or extend their business. Some orders were cancelled, and a foreign firm withdrew its offer of capital for new works. The meeting passed a resolution refusing to accept the resignation of the members ef the board, and agreeing that it was impossible at present to conduct the industry. Buozzi, leader of the metal workers' agitation in September, in a rejoinder, accused the employers of precipitating a crisis in the endeavour to force the Government to coerce labour and abolish syndicalism.