Nicola Vito Lasorsa
Lovingly known as “Nicolino”
3 March 1939 — 28 January 2022 · aged 82
Fiat Mirafiori assembly worker, union steward and Puglian son who made Turin home
Turin, Italy Born in Gravina in Puglia, Bari Resting at Cimitero Parco, TurinAbout Nicola
The sign in the window read 'Non si affitta ai meridionali', and Nicola Lasorsa, twenty-one, with a cardboard suitcase tied with string, read it twice and knocked anyway. The landlady, to her own surprise, let him in, and he repaired her radiators for free for the next four years.
He was born in 1939 in Gravina in Puglia, one of nine children of a farm labourer, and left school at thirteen. In 1960, like tens of thousands of southerners, he took the night train north to Turin, where Fiat was hiring faster than the city could house people. In February 1961 he joined the assembly line at Mirafiori, working on the bodies of the Fiat 600 and later the 128, thirty-three years in all.
He joined the FIOM union in his first week and became a shop steward in 1969, the year of the Hot Autumn. In the autumn of 1980 he stood at the Mirafiori gates through the thirty-five days of the great strike, an experience that taught him that dignity and defeat can share the same bench. The union, he used to say, was how a man from Gravina learned that he had the right to a pension, a toilet break and a Sunday. Colleagues remember his notebook of every worker's name, birthday and children.
He married Carmela in 1965 and they raised Vito and Antonella in a flat in Mirafiori Sud, with a balcony full of basil and a kitchen where, every Sunday, orecchiette were made by hand and the door stayed open for any Pugliese who felt lonely in Turin. He supported Juventus with the weary loyalty of a man who had once queued five hours for a ticket, and taught his grandchildren to cheer, and to lose, with dignity.
After retiring in 1994 he volunteered at the parish soup kitchen and taught newly arrived Moroccan and Romanian workers how to read their payslips. Nicola died on 28 January 2022 at the Molinette hospital in Turin, with Carmela and the children beside him. He leaves Carmela, Vito, Antonella and four grandchildren, one of whom has just started at the Politecnico di Torino, the first in the family.
“A man from Gravina has the right to a pension, a Sunday and a seat at the table.”
- Faith
- Catholic
- Place of birth
- Gravina in Puglia, Bari
- Resting place
- Cimitero Parco, Turin
- Passed away
- 28 January 2022, Turin
Funeral Mass
Wednesday, 2 February 2022 at 10:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
Moved north to Turin
1960 · Turin
Took the night train from Puglia with a cardboard suitcase.
Assembly line worker
Fiat Mirafiori1961 – 1980 · Turin
Built bodies for the Fiat 600 and later the 128.
Married Carmela Santoro
1965 · Gravina in Puglia
A marriage of fifty-six years.
FIOM shop steward
FIOM-CGIL, Fiat Mirafiori1969 – 1994 · Turin
Stood at the gates through the thirty-five days of 1980.
Volunteer, soup kitchen and payslip clinic
Parrocchia Sacra Famiglia di Nazareth1994 – 2021 · Turin
Helped new arrivals read their payslips and find their feet.
Tap an organisation to find others who studied or worked there.
Family & connections
Nicola is survived by
- Carmela Lasorsa· Spouse
- Vito Lasorsa· Son
- Antonella Lasorsa Ricci· Daughter
- 4 grandchildren· Grandchildren
- Pasquale Lasorsa· Brother
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Nicola.
Knew Nicola? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- VM
Cousin in Stuttgart
We both left Puglia in 1960, he for Turin and I for Stuttgart. For sixty years we compared factories by phone every Sunday. He always said Fiat made better cars; I always said Mercedes paid better. We were both lying, and we both knew it.
- FA
Parish payslip clinic
I arrived in Turin at twenty with no Italian and a payslip I could not read. A stranger in a parish room read it with me, line by line, and then asked whether I had eaten. That stranger was Nicola. I have since trained forty others to do what he did.
- PL
Brother in Gravina in Puglia
My brother left Gravina with a suitcase and came back every August in a Fiat 128 packed with presents and stories about the cold of Turin. He never lost his accent, even when he lost his hair. Gravina has lost one of its best.
- GR
Granddaughter, student at the Politecnico di Torino
Nonno's notebook is on my desk. It lists three hundred names from his line, their children and the dates of their weddings. I started at the Politecnico this autumn, the first in the family. He understood what that meant long before I did.
- DF
Parish priest, Sacra Famiglia di Nazareth
He came to the soup kitchen every Tuesday for twenty-seven years. He never preached, never sat down and never left before the last dish was dry. Once I asked what he believed in. He pointed at the line of people waiting and said, 'That, Father. The queue.'
- GB
Fellow steward, Mirafiori
Nicola taught us that a union is not a shout but a list of names. He carried every colleague's children in that notebook and asked after them every shift. In the autumn of 1980, when we lost, it was Nicola's notebook that told us who needed help first.
