ITALY: Alitalia pilots, flight attendants and ground staff march through Rome's Fiumicino airport after calling a strike to protest the rescue plan for the state-controlled airline

Record ID: 340408

  • Title: ITALY: Alitalia pilots, flight attendants and ground staff march through Rome's Fiumicino airport after calling a strike to protest the rescue plan for the state-controlled airline
  • Date: 18th September 2008
  • Summary: (W3) ROME, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 17, 2008) (REUTERS) STRIKERS, MANY IN ALITALIA UNIFORMS, WALKING THROUGH AIRPORT NEAR ALITALIA TERMINALS DEMONSTRATORS SHOUTING: 'Shame on you' PASSENGERS PASSING BY DEMONSTRATION TOURISTS TAKING PHOTOGRAPHS OF DEMONSTRATORS (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) ALITALIA PASSENGER ROCCO SERGI SAYING: "I don't think my flight to Zurich is going anywhere as I c
  • Embargoed: 3rd October 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVACZSUT9VBBAZ4XTGMWI41MUPJD
  • Story Text: Some 500 Alitalia pilots, flight attendants and ground staff marched through Rome's Fiumicino airport on Wednesday (September 17) after calling a strike in protest at the latest deal to save the national airline.
    The strike has been called to run for four hours and has caused some 40 flights to be cancelled mainly affecting passengers flying on national and European routes.
    Shouting 'Shame on you' the strikers, many in uniform, waved banners and walked past Alitalia check-in desks as bemused passengers looked on.

    "I don't think my flight to Zurich is going anywhere as I can't see it . It must have been cancelled because on a monitor it says that the strike could change the timings of flights," said passenger Rocco Sergi.
    Alitalia's bankruptcy commissioner has warned that the state-controlled airline is running out of cash for fuel and that flights could be grounded if unions do not agree quickly to a buyout offer by a group of investors.
    A meeting has been called for this afternoon at the prime minister's office for all unions to meet the head of the investor group, known as CAI.

    "We hope that they have started changing things and that they are trying to resolve this situation if they want to be see as serious," said one of the demonstrating Alitalia pilots, Fabio Gagliardi.

    "In the electoral campaign there was a promise to resolve this problem. Here they don't want to resolve problems, they want to force things upon us," he said.

    "The negotiations are at a crucial point, today we have to resolve it one way or another," pilot's union leader Massimo Notaro said.

    "Whilst negotiations are underway the pilots will continue to work, but if negotiations breakdown we will have to reassess the situation," he warned.
    The government criticised the unions' decision to strike at such a crucial time in negotiations.
    Alitalia, a powerful symbol of Italy's national identity for more than six decades, risks being liquidated after years of political interference, labour disputes, mismanagement and, most recently, soaring fuel costs.
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