La vertenza Brindisi : relazioni industriali e gestione dell'emergenza chimica in un polo di sviluppo del Mezzogiorno (1977-1985)

The essay focuses on the main stages of the long dispute that opposed the work-ers' and trade union movement of Brindisi to the management of Montedison be-tween the 1970s and 1980s. The crisis in the chemical sector and the explosion of the cracking plant of the Apulian factory - one of the largest of this kind in Italy - gave rise to an extremely serious social and employment crisis, which in that area became intertwined with the evolution of the production, organisational and own-ership structures of the chemical sector in Italy. The workers' struggles succeeded in preventing the feared closure of the plant, which nevertheless underwent a se-vere reduction in employment levels. The article concludes with an examination of the interesting triangular contractual scheme that resulted from the dispute and was designed to allow redundant workers to find new employment. However, it failed in its aim of reindustrialising the area. [Publisher's text]