Stand Up for the Right to Freedom of Association and Demonstration

Workers from Chinese factories in Prato, Italy, successfully fought for fair working hours. Shortly after their victory, the Swiss fashion group Richemont, which had been manufacturing luxury leather bags in the region, relocated its production, andthe workers lost their jobs. In response, the workers and theSUDD Cobas union took action, attracting the attention of many media outlets. Now, the union is facing an injunction from Montblanc, attempting to preventSUDD Cobasfrom taking further action outside Montblanc shops. This represents an unprecedented attack on the principles of freedom of association and demonstration. We stand in solidarity with the SUDD Cobas union and support this statement of solidarity.

International Solidarity Appeal

Striking is a right. No to anti-union measures. No to the gag order for Montblanc workers.

The luxury sector is increasingly under the spotlight for the numerous human rights violations that affect the supply chain. The so-called ‘made in Italy’ is a theoretical concept that often conceals productions obtained in countries where fundamental rights are not respected or in Italy in the dark layers of subcontracting, where workers, often immigrants, work without any rights and for poverty wages. The case of Montblanc subcontract workers that were fired after they unionised, is a plastic example.

We express our concern and indignation about the “anti-union measures” demanded by the brand Montblanc against the union SUDD Cobas with their injunction action. Montblanc is asking the Civil Court to ban the union from demonstrations within 500 meters of the Florence boutique, under penalty of fines of 5,000 euros each.

The very idea of preventing any form of workers protest within 500 meters of the brand's boutique is unprecedented and threatens the foundations of freedom of demonstration and union rights. This would be an unprecedented ban in the history of the Italian Republic, and, combined with the Security Bill no. 1660 currently under discussion in parliament of Italy with which the Meloni government wants to make picketing in front of company gates a criminal offense, makes it a very serious and worrying series of events.

With this Solidarity Appeal we ask Montblanc to respect the freedom of association and the freedom of demonstration and to drop all legal actions against SUDD Cobas union immediately.

Our solidarity goes to the SUDD Cobas union, and the workers and employees of Z Production and Eurotaglio, respectively the supplier and sub-supplier for the Montblanc brand. Their struggle had the merit of bringing to light an unacceptable reality: grueling shifts between 12 and 14 hours for six days a week, and wages less than three euros an hour, to produce bags sold for thousands of euros each. After obtaining the application of the national collective agreement and eight-hour shifts for five days a week for these workers came a termination of orders and consequently their dismissal.

Presumably the production has been delocalized, as the Union denounced from the first moment and as was documented in the video documentary “Inside Italy's Designer Sweatshop” produced by Al Jazeera. It is to assume that a “on-site relocation” took place: a relocation of orders just a few kilometers, which, however brought back the same exploitative conditions that the union had fought against at Z Production and Eurotaglio.

The very fact that Montblanc is requesting an injunction action engaging in such an anti-union measure is worrying for the health of democracy in Italy: we cannot remain silent while multinational companies and financial funds attempt to intervene more and more directly in political and social life, imposing measures, choices and directions to assert private interests against the public and collective interest, and against democracy itself.

We must reject the idea of city and public space proposed by Montblanc and Richemont (the multibillion-dollar financial fund that owns the brand): we cannot accept an idea of a city in which workers are prevented to demonstrate where the goods they produce are shown and sold, an idea of a city in which a multinational corporation can obtain the restriction of freedom of expression of members of society considered inconvenient because they want to cross those public spaces with a purpose which is not marked by consumption and private interest.

To join the appeal, write to montblancappeal@gmail.com indicating your name, surname, organisation or individual.


Current list of signatories:

Organisations from Italy:
ADL Cobas
Altraqualità
Associazione 11 Agosto
Associazione Via Milano 59, Brescia
Campagna Abiti Puliti
CAU - Collettivi Autorganizzati Universitari
Centro Nuovo Modello di Sviluppo
Collettivo di Fabbrica ex-GKN
Collettivo K1, Liceo Machiavelli Capponi di Firenze
CUB Firenze
CSA nEXt Emerson, Firenze
Ecologia Politica Network
Ex Opg "Je so' pazzo"
Equo Garantito
FAIR
Firenze Città Aperta
Fondazione Finanza Etica
FuoriBinario, giornale dei senza dimora
Laboratorio politico per Unaltracittà, Firenze
Movimento Consumatori
Movimento Migranti e Rifugiati Napoli
Non Una di Meno, Empoli
OEW Organizzazione per Un mondo solidale
Potere al Popolo
RSU SialCobas Piaggio e Ceva
Settembre Rosso
Studenti Autorganizzati Campani
Società Operaia di Mutuo Soccorso Insorgiamo
Un Tetto sulla Testa APS


Other countries or international:
ActionAid, France
Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA), Global

Association for action against violence and trafficking in human beings Open Gate, North Macedonia

Association for social, cultural and creative development ZORA, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Center for Policies, Initiatives and Research ”Platforma”, Moldova

Centre for the Politics of Emancipation, Serbia 

Clean Clothes Campaign International Office

Collectif Ethique sur l’Etiquette, France

Labour Behind The Label, United Kingdom

Maquila Solidarity Network, Canada

National Trade Union Federation, Pakistan

NaZemi, Czechia
Novi Sindikat, Croatia

ROZA Association for Women’s Labor Rights, Serbia
Schone Kleren Campagne, the Netherlands

Temiz Giysi Kampanyası, Turkey

War on Wanted, United Kingdom


Individuals:

Marco Antonelli, Scuola Normale Superiore
Viviana Asara, Università di Ferrara
Simona Baldanzi, scrittrice
Antonella Bundu, Sinistra Progetto Comune
Stefania Barca, Universita de de Santiago de Compostela
Filippo Barbera, Università di Torino
Maura Benegiamo, Università di Pisa
Andrea Bottalico, Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II
Stefano Boni, docente universitario
Andrea Bottalico, Università degli studi di Napoli Federico II
Fabio Bracci, sociologo
Massimo Bressan, antropologo IRIS Ricerche
Massimo Carlotto, scrittore
Antonella Ceccagno, Università di Bologna
Giuliana Commisso, Università degli Studi della Calabria
Stefano Gallo, CNR- Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo
Roberto Budini Gattai, architetto
Paola Imperatore, Università di Pisa
Emanuele Leonardi, Università di Bologna
Cristiano Lucchi, direttore Fuori Binario
Vincenzo Maccarrone, Scuola Normale Superiore
Tomaso Montanari, Rettore Università per Stranieri di Siena

Sandro Mezzadra, Università di Bologna
Annalisa Murgia, Università di Milano
Dmitrij Palagi, consigliere comunale Firenze
David Parri, scrittore
Michele Passione, avvocato
Domenico Perrotta, Università di Bergamo
Matteo Puttilli, docente universitario
Christian Raimo, scrittore e insegnante
Marco Ravasio, Università degli Studi di Padova e Ca' Foscari Venezia
Vincenzo Russo, prete
Devi Sacchetto, sociologo
Virginia Salerno, Università degli Studi di Padova e Ca' Foscari di Venezia
Helmut Szeliga, sacerdote di Prato
Massimo Torelli, Comitato Salviamo Firenze
Sabrina Tosi Cambini, Università di Parma
Lorenzo Zamponi, Scuola Normale Superiore

published 2025-01-28