AGTA: "Unseemly for tour guides to make do during emergency: we must not be squatters."

TheAGTA - Association of Licensed Tourist Guides sent a note to totally dissociate itself from the open letter sent yesterday by ANGT - National Association of Tourist Guides to Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. In the letter, the ANGT proposed to make available the skills of tourist guides during the coronavirus emergency “in collaboration with the Regions, in cultural heritage, libraries, archival assets, compatibly with security measures,” arguing that this act may represent a “noble gesture that gives dignity, to say thank you toItaly.”

Not of the same opinion is AGTA, which in the statement signed by President Isabella Ruggiero, states that just as to be a tour guide requires a special qualification, in the same way also “every job in cultural heritage (archivist, librarian, etc.) requires different skills,” and “work (also) in cultural heritage is paid for.”

“Here we are not faced with the flooding of the Arno, for which thousands must rush to save works and manuscripts,” Ruggiero says. “The archivists and librarians are there, we just lack the funds and the political ability to hire them instead of exploiting volunteer or low-paying staff (remember the phenomenon of the scontrinisti and other similar ones denounced by Mi Riconosci?). So, what is the point of ANGT’s proposal? At first, in reading the communiqué, we were confused, because it seemed to us that they intended to offer to let guides work for free. Then today, reading the explanations and written comments of ANGT’s Executive members on Facenppl, both on the ANGT public page and in the closed Guide Coordination Group, we understood what they meant: since guides will be at the post for a longer period than other professions, at least a year if not two, then ANGT is proposing to the government to let us work in various cultural places so that they will give us the 600-800 euro allowance for a very long period, instead of just a few months. That is, they are asking for a subsidy that will allow them to survive during the many months when there will be no tourism, offering in return work in the field of cultural heritage.”

According to Ruggiero and AGTA, this sort of helpfulness on the part of ANGT is not acceptable: “We do not agree, not at all.” These are the reasons: “first, because one thing is the allowance that is given by the government to all the categories in crisis and another is the work compensation. The government is giving the allowance to all categories, including those who work off the books, to make sure that no one is unable to move forward. It is a policy with windfall aid. The amounts are low and similar for everyone, because they do not correspond to what one used to earn, but to what one needs to survive. We are happy that guides can also receive such an allowance. However, we do not agree that a professional should work in libraries and archives at 600-800 euros a month, even after the COVID-19 crisis.”

For AGTA, there are no half-measures: “we consider the proposal indecent towards colleagues in cultural heritage, to whom we express all our solidarity. Proposing to work in archives and libraries for 600-800 euros is equivalent to an abusive guide taking away a service from a licensed guide by accepting half a fee. Years of struggles over compensation, both by guides and Mi Riconosci and by unions in the various categories swept away by a letter.”

But there is more: “the message that seems to emerge from ANGT’s letter is that in times of crisis anyone can do anything. Almost all active guides are college graduates. So those with other skills besides a license may decide to pursue different career paths. If some manage to find another job, we want them to do it with the appropriate skills required in that field, not to make do for a while. Then when in two or three years the crisis is hopefully over, and maybe tourism will again be the leading sector of our country that everyone wants to jump into, what will ANGT’s president say if librarians and archivists in the deep crisis of their sector, will ask to be allowed to be tour guides even though they do not have the certification?” And again, the note continues, “ANGT’s proposal risks being a bombshell for the cultural heritage sector, injecting a very low-paid workforce into a sector where associations and professionals have already been fighting for years to have their rights recognized. No one likes to live on welfare, least of all freelancers, but one does not earn a 600-euro allowance by being a volunteer in the cultural heritage field. The battle against volunteerism has been one of our pillars for years and we will not deny it just now.”

“As AGTA,” the note continues, “we will never approve of any guide going out and competing with other cultural heritage professionals, taking jobs away from others, ruining the battle for fair compensation, and accepting as salary/compensation a sum that is instead a subsistence allowance. AGTA during this time has been involved in social work: we supported blood donation when there was a shortage, and many of our Members are active in organizations that provide care. In this tragedy, these are the activities that we want to do for free to help Italy and all those on the health front to fight the disease without the proper means.”

AGTA finally asks the government for “strong support, but not at the expense of others. Now the worst risk is to make war between us tourism and cultural heritage professionals. We are all unprotected, almost all of us coming from degrees with no job outlets or cheap job outlets, where we were forced to volunteer, where we were looked down upon if we dared to solicit payments. Some of us after years of this life moved on to tourism, some found an outlet in teaching, some luckier ones managed to get into the Superintendencies, some stayed in the precariat. Now I beg everyone to stick together. Because the worst thing that can happen to us is to let them divide us. We are already weak. In recent years we have managed to coalesce over so many battles. Let’s keep it up. In the belief that none of us is caste because we all come from the same base. The caste is that of those who have governed us for decades by reducing cultural heritage to a shambles and tourism to a spoils to be divided; of those who have condemned us professionals to a separately managed INPS fund where, after a lifetime of work, we will receive 400 euros a month, half the citizenship income. These are the real battles on which to fight united.”

Pictured: AGTA tour guides at the demonstration on October 6, 2018. Ph. Credit Windows on Art

AGTA: "Unseemly for tour guides to make do during emergency: we must not be squatters."

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