Solidarity to the workers of the Mario Negri Sud institute

I don’t usually post online petitions, but this is a bit personal to me as it regards the closure of a big research institute close to my hometown in Italy.

The Mario Negri Sud was a research institute active for the last 30 years in Abruzzo, a region in the center-south of Italy. During all these years the institute achieved excellence in many fields, from cardiovascular diseases to breast tumors, from diabetes to some rare diseases, and much more. I remember reading about an article on polycythemia vera (a rare cancer) published on NEJM just before financial problems halted most of the research, and more work by a neuroscientist who was really affected by the stress of the situation.

Unfortunately last week, after 4 years of financial struggle, the institute was officially declared bankrupt. Still, this is not the worst part.  Given the financial situation it is likely that the workers of the institute, aproximately 160 people between researchers and staff, will not receive their pay from the last 18 months, moreover they will not get their pension funds (the Italian TFR), which for some people amounts to tens of thousands of euros, accumulated in more than 25 years of work.

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The Negri Sud institute. Click here to sign the petition.

These are people who dedicated almost all their life to research, and it is very unfair that they are threated this way. It is well known that the life of researchers is full of sacrifices and is never financially stable. To think that after many years they are denied a pension and abandoned to their fate is really inconceivable. Politicians were not able to solve the situation, and they are probably guilty of making it worse. Moreover given the geographical isolation of the institute, this situation hasn’t received much attention from the media outside of Abruzzo.

If you want to sign the petition, just click on this link to change.org. The petition is in Italian, and basically asks to the presidents of the Mario Negri institute, the Abruzzo region and the Chieti province (the three founding entitites of Negri Sud), to at least pay the pension and the salary of these workers. The change.org website will ask for your name, direction, postal code, and email. The website may later send you additional emails regarding other petitions, but you can opt out at any time.