Angelo Airoldi – Wikipedia

Angelo Airoldi (Lecco, 5 August 1942 – Portogruaro, January 21, 1999) was an Italian trade unionist.

Angelo Airoldi was born in Lecco in 1942. His father is employed at the Guzzi di Mandello del Lario. The mother, housewife, is affected by a disease that will lead her to a premature death. He has an older sister, Gilda.

He studied at the Liceo Classico in Lecco and, after the maturity, enrolled at the University of Pavia, where he will first attend the Faculty of Medicine, then that of Biology. In 1968 his father also died and Airoldi had to stop his studies and work. Ulisse Guzzi, owner of the Ligurian tubettificio and enlightened entrepreneur, commissioned him to follow the Piero Calamandrei club, which he was in Lecco. A few months later, it is recruited by the local CGIL which allocates it first to the Federation of Foodmarers (then Filziat), then to Filncea and finally, in 1969, to Fiom.

He is an official of the Fiom of Lecco and elected delegate, participates in the XVI National Congress of the Federation, in 1970. He joined the Central Committee, for the first time in the history elected by secret ballot. The following year he was called by Bruno Trentin to be part of the national apparatus, where he follows the steel sector. Some time later, when the union unit process reached its highest point, with the establishment of the FLM (metalworking workers federation), Airoldi passes to the organization, following in particular the training activity of the union paintings.

With the 17th congress, in 1977, he joined the national secretariat, now led by Pio Galli, and is responsible for the organization. Three years later, in 1980, he was sent to Lombardy to hold the role of general secretary of the regional Fiom. In Lombardy he remains four years, which coincide with the period in which the union unit process begins to get into crisis.

In 1984 he returned to the national secretariat of Fiom and follows the car sector. Little the role of secretary general passes from Pio Galli to Sergio Garavini. Fiom is preparing its XVIII Congress to be held in Naples in February 1986. In it Airoldi will be reconfirmed in the national secretariat.

In 1987 Sergio Garavini is a candidate for political elections with the Communist Party. The central committee of Fiom elects Airoldi general secretary: it is June 25, 1987. The following year, in Verona, the 19th Congress confirms it in this role. These are difficult years. The 1988 Fiat dispute ends with the signing of a “separate” agreement by Fim and Uilm. The management of the renewal of the national contract in 1990 is also very tiring. This time the unity of the three federations holds up, but the modest results obtained determine tensions in the Fiom and between this and the CGIL.

At the 20th Congress in 1991, Airoldi leaves Fiom. He enters the CGIL national secretariat, now led by Bruno Trentin, where he is responsible for economic policies and for the intervention in favor of the South. After the financial crisis of summer 1992, the unions are called by the governments in office, to take on precise responsibilities for the restoration of the country’s situation. Thus we arrive at the agreement of 23 July 1993, the so -called “social pact”. The story increases the tensions within the CGIL and its national secretariat. In 1994 he became secretary general Sergio Cofferati and Airoldi remains with the same proxies that had already been attributed to him.

A few years later, Cofferati launches a renewal plan of the CGIL’s executive bodies. The plan provides that even those who have reached the most prestigious locations make themselves available for other types of roles within the union. Until then, the most level managers left the CGIL because they are designated by their political party to elective positions in the Italian or European parliament. Airoldi shares the plan and does it first of all with reference to itself, taking on in November 1998 the position of general secretary of the newly established Chamber of Metropolitan Labor of Venice.

On January 21, 1999 he died from a heart attack during a secretariat meeting in Portogruaro. In the farewell ceremony, celebrated in Rome at the headquarters of the National CGIL, it is remembered by Sergio Cofferati, Vincenzo Visco (at the time Minister of Finance) and Pierpaolo Baretta.

Airoldi’s works basically consist of relationships, interventions and interviews, writings and/or pronounced in the union (meetings, congresses, magazines). They are kept in the Historical Archive of the Fiom in Milan.

• G. Barbieri, F. Liuzzi, The style of a trade unionist , in Union review , n. 2, 1999.
• C. Ghezzi (edited by), Angelo Airoldi. The “Gentile” trade unionist , Ediesse, Rome, 2010.
• A. Gianfagna, 1944-2006. The men and women of the CGIL , Ediesse, Rome, 2007.
• G. Rispoli, A life for the CGIL , in Union review , n. 54, 2009.