International agreement : bilateral agreement Italy-Belgium

Agreement concluded on June 20th, 1946 and signed in Rome on June 23rd, 1946

Agreement between Italy and Belgium concerning the recruitment of Italian workforce and their settling in Belgium, 1946

The agreement provides for the sending of 50,000 Italian workers (2,000 per week) into the Belgian mines in exchange for the right to get 200 kilos of coal per miner and per day paid by Italy.
The contracts have a 12-month length.
A selection is carried out between the candidates at the start in Italy. It is both physical with a medical visit and « ideological » (there is a control by the Criminal Investigation Department on the starting point : some politically inoffensive candidates are recruited, even though it is not official, a « selection » is carried out among the candidates).
The Italian workers are shared out into the 5 coal areas (Liege, Mons, Centre, Charleroi, Campine). In each area, the Italian government delegates a man of trust to make sure the work is done properly and the Italian miners’ interests are respected.
The Belgian government must make sure that coalmines bring :
- food as much as possible in accordance with the workers’ eating habits ;
- decent accommodation
- work conditions, social advantages and salaries established on the same basis as for Belgian miners.

This agreement takes place in the framework of the « coal battle » in Belgium : after the Second World War, it is necessary to give quickly a boost to the coal production which is essential for the rebuilding of the economy.
A problem arises : the recruitment of miners and the necessity in the end to call on foreign workforce because this work is not much sought-after among Belgians.
The economical situation being very difficult in Italy, with a high unemployment rate, the agreement will have an important success because 77,000 Italian workers will be recruited between June 1946 and December 1949.
This protocol is characteristic of an immigration policy with the placing of quotas.
This contribution in workforce will indeed allow the boosting of the coal production in Belgium but we can wonder about the respect of the commitments made by Belgium concerning accommodation and work conditions, especially at the level of accidents at work.
The catastrophe at the Bois du Cazier on August 8th, 1956 will highlight this problem and will almost cause the stopping of Italian immigration to work in mines. The hired miners will from now on come from other countries.

http://untreaty.un.org/unts/1_60000/1/20/00000998.pdf

Philippe PLUMET

Inforef

External expert. Project leader - Educational coordination unit “Democracy or barbarism”, Ministery of French-speaking community in Belgium