Since early April, immigrant workers in the Tuscan city of Prato have staged a wave of strikes demanding their right to a 40-hour work week, or “8x5.” Organized by the union SUDD Cobas, these walkouts, dubbed “Strike Days,” have directly involved 70 textile and garment factories in Europe’s biggest textile manufacturing hub. Highly successful, these simultaneous strikes have now won “8x5”—eight hour days, five days a week—in 68 fashion workshops and warehouses, all within the span of 14 weeks.
The question is whether the 40-hour week is also mandatory for locals? If so, then the strike would indeed be justified…
It’s mandatory as in over that you go into overtime and contracts must have a maximum yearly overtime limit, which in cases like this is often ignored.
The problem with Prato, as written in the article, is that it is plagued by illegal practices, so even if your category contract is supposed to protect it, you may simply not have a contract or they can just ignore it. Contractual disputes are solved in front of a judge, and it takes a long time to get a hearing.
It’s simply a criminal environment, which is partly tolerated partly fought by the authorities.