Susanna Camusso, General Secretary of the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), Italy

Susanna Camusso started her union activity as a student at Milan’s Statale University, as a coordinator of the ‘150 hours’ policies and of educational rights. In 1975 she became coordinator at the FLM (metalworkers joint federation set up by CGIL, CISL, UIL) for the workers' training policies. In 1977 she lead FIOM (CGIL Metalworkers) in the Milan area, in charge of union relations at the Ansaldo Group. In 1980 she entered Milan’s FIOM Secretariat and in 1986 Lombardy’s FIOM Secretariat. From September 1993 to the end of 1997 she was National Secretary at the FIOM headquarters in Rome, first in charge of the automotive sector and then of the steel sector. In December 1997 she went back to Milan as Secretary General of the Regional Agroindustry Federation (FLAI-CGIL), a position that she held until 2001, when she was elected Secretary General of CGIL in Lombardy. In June 2008 she entered the CGIL headquarters as National Secretary, in charge of bargaining and industry. After two years, she was appointed Vice-Secretary General. In November 2010 she became the first woman to be elected Secretary General in the whole CGIL’s history of 100 years. Susanna Camusso was born in 1955 in Milan and has a daughter. Moreover: in November 2005, helped by a group of women, she organized the movement “Usciamo dal silenzio” (Let's break the silence), working for women’s freedom and civil liberties.

February 2011 was when they organized the latest massive demonstration, when thousands people gathered in Rome for the respect of women’s dignity