Susanna Camusso

Susanna Camusso was born in Milan in 1955 and has a daughter. As a student at the Faculty of Archaeology at the State University, she became involved in union activism and coordinated activities around the 150 hours and right to study policies. In 1975 she became the FLM coordinator ( the metalworkers section of the CGIL, CISL and UIL unions) for policies regarding the training and education of workers. In 1977 she ran the FIOM (the Metalworkers’ Federation) in Milan, in the Solari-Giambellino area before moving on to the central branch in the Bovisa area, where among other matters she took care of union relations with the Ansaldo Group. In 1980, with the establishment of districts in Milan, she joined the Milanese FIOM secretariat and in 1986, that of the region of Lombardy. From September 1993 to the end of 1997, she worked in Rome, at the national FIOM secretariat, first in charge of the car industry section and then of the metal and steel section. In December 1997, she was elected Secretary-General of the Federation of the Food Industry Workers (FLAI) of the region of Lombardy, a role she assumed until July 2001, when she was elected Secretary-General of the Lombard CGIL. On the 16th of June 2008, she was elected National Secretary for trade and industry. Two years later, on the 8th of June 2010, she became vice-secretary-general of the CGIL , assuming deputy duties. On November 3rd of the same year, she became the first woman in the century-old history of Italian unions to be elected secretary-general of the CGIL. Moreover, in 2005, together with a group of other women, she founded the “Stepping out of Silence” movement which organized a major demonstration in Milan on the 14th of January 2006, bringing together more than 200 thousand men and women from all over the country in defence of women’s rights, the law on pregnancy termination and civil rights. Another such demonstration took place on February 13th 2011, organized by the Committee “If not now, when?”, that organized demonstrations throughout the country, particularly in Rome where hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the Piazza del Popolo, in the name of respect for women’s rights.