Labour, Health and Workers’ Memory: Monfalcone Shipyard Workers in the 1960s and 1970s

Abstract

The essay explores workers’ history at the Monfalcone shipyard – now known as Fincantieri – during the 1960s and 1970s. This was a period marked by intense workers’ mobilizations fighting for a different organisational structure and a higher level of occupational health and safety. Drawing on previously unpublished sources, it was possible to reconstruct working conditions, strikes and protests against accidents at work, as well as the introduction of occupational medicine in the organisation. The oral testimonies of two former shipyard workers were also especially significant.