Striking to Eat Better !. Politics of Factory Meal in Italy, 1969-1970

The sequence of large strikes and social movements that flared up in industrial centers between 1969-1970, the so-called "Autunno caldo,", constitutes a crucial point in the history of Italian society during the second half of the century. Factory workers fostered a renewal of unions' strategies, by the establishment of shop committees (the “Consigli di Fabbrica”) and the pursuing of various targets. Alongside the requests for an effective control over production methods, manpower strikes for higher wages and better working conditions, making also widespread demands for an improvement of feeding facilities at the factories. Having a restful and nutritious lunch provided by the companies was an important feature of professional status, as well as a means of ensuring employees’ health, controlling production flow and protecting wages’ purchasing power. Workers' action involves several issues, ranging from the establishment of factory canteens to employees’ right to determine how catering service was provided (lunch-break shifts, menus, catering companies, ecc.). In other terms, factory canteen constitutes a political arena that shape everyday factory life, as well as a terrain for exerting and enhancing workers' power within the plants. Using various resources (archival papers, magazines, iconographic sources), our purpose is to investigate struggles over industrial catering policies, analyzing the role played by the workers and management’s response. An original perspective that will allow us to highlight the complex interaction between practices and cultures that defines employees’ dietary habits at the workplace, a "contested terrain" with a broader social and political significance.