No Progress Without Struggle: The first self-organized strike by Italy’s migrant farmworkers

Translated by Giuseppe Rensi and edited by Sofia Salazar-Rubio
Originally published in Lo Straniero[1]

In the summer of 2011, about 400 African watermelon and tomato harvesters living in the Masseria Boncuri[2] in Nardò, Lecce province, went on strike for almost two weeks. This was the first self-organized strike in Italy by farmworkers against an exploitative system based on the “caporalato.”[3] In addition to farmworkers, the struggle involved trade unions, anti-racism associations and radical militants. The following is an excerpt from the extensive testimony of Yvan Sagnet, a protest spokesperson.

My attraction to Italy began in 1990 during the World Cup, in which my country of Cameroon was playing. I was one of the few who wanted to immigrate to Italy, in particular Torino (Turin), because Roberto Baggio, a famous Italian soccer star, played for the local team. In August 2010, I arrived in Torino and enrolled in the Politecnico university. I felt as though my dream had come true.

Because of the economic crisis in Torino (as well as many other parts of Italy), and the need to find extra money to pay university fees, I followed the advice of a friend and went to the Nardò in Puglia, a small town of nearly 30,000 inhabitants near Lecce on the Salento peninsula, to harvest watermelons and tomatoes. It is here that I experienced the “caporalato.”

Another World, Another Africa, Another Italy
I arrived in Nardò at the Masseria Boncuri. It was a hellhole. There were 500 people living in tents. There was filth and abandoned waste all around. The first day, I slept in the open air on the ground because there weren’t any places left inside the tents. The Masseria Boncuri was another world, another Africa, another Italy.

The task of transporting workers to the fields was totally in the hands of the caporali (foremen), who charged workers for that service. Every worker was required to pay five euros for transportation for a distance of two to four kilometers. A worker is not allowed to use any other means of transportation to reach the workplace or he would be fired. The caporale organized the work once we arrived at the fields. Every worker had the “right” to three rows of tomato plants, each one 500 meters long. He must pull up the plants before placing them into the cassoni (crates) brought in on farm trucks.

Pay was calculated according to the number of cassoni filled, i.e. by piecework. The caporale paid laborers €3.50 per cassone. It is obvious that in order for a worker to increase his earnings, he should fill as many cassoni as possible. On average, a worker was able to fill around seven cassoni per day. Therefore, an average worker earned about €24.50 per day, minus €5.00 for transportation and €3.50 for a sandwich that the caporale made us purchase. On average, then, a laborer earned a total daily wage of €16.00.

The Roots of Dissent
I will never forget my first day of work, because, unlike my coworkers, I did not have any experience with farm labor. I was psychologically and physically exhausted. I earned €21.00, from which I had to deduct expenses for transportation and food. I was left with €12.50.

The caporale used many psychological pressure tactics. They pushed us to speed up and put us in competition with one another—not to mention the fatigue and illnesses caused by the work. When a worker happened to become ill on the job, it was always better to go to the doctor rather than tell the caporale, who would charge €10 to accompany him to the hospital. The worker had to accept the fee because he didn’t even know the address of his workplace and could not call for first aid. Farm laborers suffered from headaches, stomachaches, and backaches, as well as fevers and shoulder pain. Hands and feet were frequently injured because we worked without gloves or protective footgear.

The Spark of Protest
The first day of the strike was my fifth day of work and we felt a sort of new unity among us. Even in the camp one breathed a shared tension ready to explode. That day, there was an Italian employer in the fields who asked us to pick only the best tomatoes, which would have slowed down our work significantly and reduced our wages. A caporale approached one of my coworkers and told him that he was doing a lousy job, threatening to expel him from the camp. [An argument ensued] until other workers and I came forward to intervene, asking to raise the payment for each cassone from €3.50 to €6.00, arguing that the burdensome labor of selection had to be compensated in an adequate manner. Faced with the caporale’s obstinacy, we left the fields together and returned to the Masseria.

We wanted regular contracts, the end of caporalato, direct contacts between farm owners and farm laborers, the opening of an employment office within the Masseria, an increase in salaries, more doctors, and an improvement in living conditions in the camp. We were ready to refuse to return to work until our demands were met.

The first two days were a success: 95 percent of the laborers went on strike. We obtained a meeting with the prefetto [chief administrator of the province] of Lecce, in order to explain our demands. We achieved our objectives the following week. In the meantime, the caporali began to either raise the pay per cassone from €3.50 to €4.00 or hire laborers with a regular contract. By order of the farm owners, the caporali told the laborers that if there were inspections in the fields, they should say that they were paid by the hour and not by the job, because the latter was prohibited by the provincial contract. Moreover, we noticed the presence of some local employers who wanted to hire the laborers directly, respecting Italian laws, without the involvement of the caporali.