Dear colleagues, evidently the air in the States must have some miraculous property which induces us to seek questions and answers that are not found and cannot be found in Italy.
I am referring to Dr. Dompè's utterances that we find in the article published by l'Unità on 16 June last
“The economic maneuver announced by the government, while on the one hand it is 'dutiful' at a time when 'we all have to make sacrifices', on the other 'seems to express a sort of obstinacy' towards pharmaceuticals. This is the judgment of the president of Farmindustria, Sergio Dompe', who, on the sidelines of a conference in Washington dedicated to the "Italian model" of the pharmaceutical system, criticized some of the measures envisaged by the manoeuvre. “Right now, as an Italian system, we have the obligation to be in solidarity with the need to activate an economic maneuver in Italy. In life you need to have a sense of mutual responsibility, and know when to step back."
While the institutional need to make one's voice heard at every opportunity to complain about what is happening is clear, while being aware of the fact of crying with the mouse in one's mouth, these last utterances are truly incomprehensible.
Until now the only part of the pharmaceutical sector that has had to and continues to suffer the effects of the so-called crisis and to which sacrifices have been and are required, are the workers in the pharmaceutical sector and in particular the ISFs.
The fury (allegedly towards companies) declared by Dr. Dompè seems to have taken place towards the ISFs, which have drastically decreased in number, and which in the last two contract renewals have left an important piece of their salary and purchasing power on the table, just as the pharmaceutical industry, in contrast to other sectors, has continued to grow and accumulate profits.
As far as the sense of mutual responsibility is concerned, I wonder and I ask you dear readers where it ended up. If there had been at least a glimmer of common sense we would not be in the current situation. We would not helplessly witness the extermination of a category previously made hypertrophic by the companies themselves and now forced into a "concentration camp" style slimming cure.
We would not see so many highly specialized workers leave a sector and we would not witness the last truly depressing attempt to replace personnel with lower cost ones, without union and contractual protection and with maximum job precariousness.
Perhaps it would have been better to take advantage of this American holiday to clarify his ideas better and stop with the usual pantomime of all time.
In the meantime, we try not to be duped by these pied pipers.
Umberto Alderisi
19.06.2010
