The De Filippi workers protest in front of the Archbishop’s residence

The crisis of the De Filippi Archiepiscopal Institute is getting worse. This morning, the employees protested in front of the Bishop’s Court in Milan, which owns the facility, after an unsuccessful union meeting between the two parties yesterday.

The trade unions want Lombardy Region to call a meeting to find a solution. On Wednesday 14 May at 9 a.m., the employees will be seen by Mayor Attilio Fontana, but in the meantime, they have decided to make their situation known to the public, as much as possible. The De Filippi Institute, which is in Varese, in Via Brambilla, Varese, not far from the Church of Brunella, has almost 50 employees and some of them have been receiving redundancy pay since last September, when it was decided to close the hotel service. The De Filippi announced that they would cease managing the 98 rooms.

“There are 19 employees at risk,” explained the trade union representatives Paola Milani (CGIL) and Clarissa Marcozzi (CISL). “They’re all at the Conference Centre, not at the hotel school. Yesterday afternoon, there was a third meeting for the negotiations, between the trade unions and the representatives of the Bishop’s Court in Milan. We tried, on several occasions and in different ways, to meet the Bishop concerned in Milan, but he never agreed to meet us. So, this morning, on the day of San Vittore, we went outside the offices with a banner to draw attention, hoping to be seen, but no one came to talk to us.”

The De Filippi crisis seems to be due to the current economic situation. According to the employees, demand from clients has not dropped so greatly, and they have also taken into account some problems of the past. According to the owners, however, it is only the conference centre that has problems due to the crisis.