THYSSENKRUPP BLUES from On The DOCKS on Vimeo.
This video says about itself:
THYSSENKRUPP BLUES
DIRECTED BY Pietro BALLA AND Monica REPETTO
Orizzonti Venice International Film Festival 2008
Best Film Mediterraneo Film Festival 2008
Salina Docfest 2008
CinemAmbiente-Environmental Film Festival 2008WITH THE SUPPORT OF PIEMONTE DOC FILM FUND
Broadcaster RAI CINEMA
Production DERIVA FILM
Co-production ESPERIA FILM | BABYDOC FILMDOCUMENTARY 1 x 73’
Italy 2008Carlo Marrapodi, a young Calabrian boy who goes to live in Turin, finds work at the ThyssenKrupp Special Steelworks Factory. In April 2007, the German management decides to dismantle the Turin plant. In June, Carlo receives a letter saying he has been made redundant and as of today has been placed on the dole. In September, the establishment decides to postpone dismantling the plant until the end of the year and Carlo is recalled to work in autumn. The workers are forced to work grueling shifts and the safety conditions are precarious: during the night between 6 and 7 December 2007, seven men die amid the flames. Carlo worked the afternoon shift. Following this incident Carlo is forced to return to Calabria.
“Together with Pasolini’s The Anger, the best Italian film seen in Venice this year.” (Luca Barnabé, Duellanti).
From ANSA news agency in Italy:
‘No more Thyssens’, Prodi vows
Workplace safety ‘top priority’ says premier after 7th death
Rome, December 31 – Premier Romano Prodi on Monday vowed to prevent industrial accidents like the ThyssenKrupp steelworks blaze in Turin three weeks ago whose seventh and last victim died Sunday night.
”The year has ended in the worst possible way,” Prodi told reporters.
”Our pledge must be that these things mustn’t happen again,” ”Workplace safety must be our top priority”.
Turin city council has called off New Year celebrations in the northern Italian city after the death of Giuseppe Demasi, 26, the last of seven workers severely burned in the December 5-6 fire.
The disaster, in Italy’s traditional industrial heartland, has triggered a flurry of concern over deaths in the workplace. Solidarity strikes and other initiatives have been staged in other regions.
In the first nine months of 2007 there have been 774 deaths in the workplace, 114 fewer than in 2006. According to Eurostat, Italy’s annual average of 2.5 deaths per 100,000 workers is below the EU average of 2.7.
In the wake of the Turin fire there were calls for tougher regulations but Prodi said that companies, especially in the construction sector, were often to blame for failing to apply existing rules.
Parliament passed new laws on workplace security – envisaging three-year jail sentences for the worst failures – in August this year but they have yet to be implemented.
Local prosecutors are investigating the ThyssenKrupp fire, which initially killed four steelworkers and left three in a critical condition, to see what anti-fire equipment was in place and what sort of emergency training workers had.
Germany: Thyssen Krupp launches further attacks on workforce: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Appuntamento oggi alle 15,00 nelle maggiori stazioni italiane per
ricordare i lavoratori morti di Torino
(3.1.07) – «Sette fischi di dolore e indignazione dai nostri
locomotori, così saluteremo a modo nostro i sette lavoratori della
Thyssen morti a Torino»
E’ l’annuncio dei delegati Rsu-Rls dell’Assemblea Nazionale dei
Ferrovieri, organismo autoconvocato, composto da lavoratori iscritti o
non iscritti a tutte le sigle sindacali presenti nelle FS.«Oggi,
mentre si svolgeranno i funerali di Giuseppe Demasi, i treni in
circolazione in tutta Italia faranno risuonare contemporaneamente
sette lunghi fischi dedicati ad ognuno dei lavoratori morti. È il
nostro grido di denuncia. Nessuno potrà far finta di non sentire
qual’è il richiamo che viene dai lavoratori. Abbiamo informato le
Ferrovie e richiesto di avvisare i viaggiatori del perché di questi
sette lunghi fischi. Inoltre abbiamo avvisato direttamente tutto il
personale che sarà a lavoro domani alle 15, durante il
funerale.Vogliamo con questo semplice gesto – proseguono i delegati –
esprimere il dolore e l’indignazione di tutti i ferrovieri per queste
sette morti assurde e per la strage quotidiana cui assistiamo
impotenti. Vogliamo far sentire a tutti, da Palermo a Trieste, che il
problema della salute e della sicurezza sul lavoro non è soltanto un
problema di Torino o dei metalmeccanici ma è una vera questione
nazionale che riguarda l’intero Paese.La nostra iniziativa –
concludono i ferrovieri – è nata dalla volontà dei delegati di base,
consapevoli della inadeguatezza delle risposte sindacali e
istituzionali, ed è il preludio di ulteriori azioni a favore della
sicurezza di cui i ferrovieri, su scala nazionale, si faranno
promotori. Auspichiamo da domani iniziative nazionali e di tutte le
categorie per una mobilitazione generale a favore della sicurezza».
I delegati Rsu/Rls dell’ Assemblea Nazionale dei Ferrovieri
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/riscossarossa/message/9334
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2008-06-30 18:09
ThyssenKrupp relatives get pay- out
Six company directors to go on trial Tuesday for fatal fire
(ANSA) – Turin, June 30 – Relatives of seven workers who died last year in a fire at the ThyssenKrupp steelworks in Turin reached a compensation agreement with the German multinational on Monday.
Lawyers for the relatives said sums agreed were different for each family but that the total pay-out was 12.97 million euros. ”It’s not about the money because nothing and no-one can give me back my son, but our lawyers have explained it’s about respecting the laws,” said the mother of 32-year-old victim Roberto Scola, signing the agreement in tears.
One of the worst workplace accidents in Italy in recent years, the fire broke out at the steelworks on December 5-6, initially killing four men while three others died later in hospital.
A preliminary hearing for six ThyssenKrupp directors is set to open on Tuesday following an investigation by local prosecutors into emergency training and anti-fire equipment at the steelworks.
The industrial conglomerate has denied charges of failing to keep adequate fire-fighting systems in place at the plant.
Scola’s mother, Ida, on Monday said she hoped the trial would result in an ”exemplary” conviction.
In the wake of the ThyssenKrupp tragedy and a series of other workplace accidents, the previous centre-left government passed new health and safety reforms which included a tough revision of penal and administrative sanctions for employers.
The current government has pledged to continue the crackdown and an emergency security decree being discussed in parliament includes a measure to give absolute priority to workplace accident-related trials.
But according to ANMIL, an association representing injured workers, the country needs far more work safety inspectors for the reforms to make any difference.
The association said that if every Italian business were to be checked by the number of staff currently available, each would receive a visit once every 23 years.
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ThyssenKrupp manager trial begins
CEO faces landmark murder charge over steelworks fire
(ANSA) – Turin, January 5 – A landmark trial of managers from Turin’s ThyssenKrupp steelworks over the deaths of seven workers in a fire in 2007 got under way on Thursday.
For the first time in Italy in a workplace death trial, one of the six managers, managing director Harald Espenhahn, is charged with murder.
The five other managers are charged with manslaughter, while the ThyssenKrupp company is also a defendant.
Public prosecutor Raffaele Guarinello said his aim was ”not to make an example (out of the managers) but to have a fair trial”.
Although relatives of the seven workers reached a compensation agreement with the German multinational in June for a reported total pay-out of 12.97 million euros, many were in court on Thursday wearing t-shirts with pictures of the victims’ faces.
”(The managers) killed them and they must go to prison,” said Rosina De Masi, the mother of one of the men who died in the fire. ”I’m just sorry that they will probably not get a life sentence”.
The trial stems from an investigation into emergency training and anti-fire equipment at the steelworks.
One worker died immediately in the fire, which broke out at the plant’s thermal treatment department during the night shift on December 6 2007. The others died of severe burns over the following days and weeks.
Survivors at the time told how the fire swept through the steelworks.
”There had been a small fire where some oil was burning. We thought we could put it out and we got out the fire extinguishers, but the flames spread and got bigger, and then there were some explosions,” said one.
”I tried to help (the men in the flames), I was pulling burnt hair off them, pieces of clothes”.
Another survivor claimed that three of the five extinguishers were empty or broken.
The industrial conglomerate has denied charges of failing to keep adequate fire-fighting systems in place at the plant.
Judges on Thursday agreed to requests from television channels to be allowed to film proceedings on the grounds that the trial had significant public interest.
The trial was adjourned until January 22.
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ThyssenKrupp to sever Iran links
Germany: Steel and machinery transnational ThyssenKrupp announced on Thursday it would halt its business dealings in Iran, following similar decisions by Siemens and Deutsche Bank.
The company, notorious for exploiting slave labourers during World War II, said it would phase out its existing business and would not enter into any new contracts in the country.
The company’s turnover in Iran was £170 million in the last financial year.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/95668
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