ITALY: ONE DAY GENERAL STRIKE IN PROTEST OVER ECONOMIC POLICY AND GOVERNMENT PLANS TO RAISE RETIREMENT AGE

Record ID: 342244

  • Title: ITALY: ONE DAY GENERAL STRIKE IN PROTEST OVER ECONOMIC POLICY AND GOVERNMENT PLANS TO RAISE RETIREMENT AGE
  • Date: 26th March 2004
  • Summary: (U3) ROME, ITALY (MARCH 26, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS MARCHING 0.07 2. CLOSE OF BALLOONS WITH PRIME MINISTER SILVIO BERLUSCONI'S FACE PRINTED ON THEM 0.13 3. WIDE OF DEMONSTRATORS WITH POLITICAL PARTY AND PEACE FLAGS 0.17 4. CLOSE OF LITTLE BOY HOLDING FLAG 0.21 5. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WITH BANNER , CHANTING: "BERLUSCONI IN JAIL" 0.30 6. PAN SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Italian): UNIDENTIFIED MAN, SAYING: "We are here because we are fed up with the Berlusconi government." 0.39 7. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE MARCHING WITH FLAGS AND BALLOONS 0.57 (U3) ROME, ITALY (MARCH 26, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 8. TRAVELLING SHOT DOWN ESCALATOR INTO SUBWAY STATION 1.04 9. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE ON CROWDED UNDERGROUND PLATFORM WAITING FOR LAST TRAIN 1.20 10. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Italian): UNIDENTIFIED MAN, SAYING: "Just look at all these people trying to get on trains and not fitting in...Contracts, pensions, everything is wrong. The only way is to protest till they give us back our rights." 1.41 11. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE GETTING ON LAST TRAIN 1.48 12. VARIOUS OF LAST TRAIN LEAVING 2.01 (U3) ROME, ITALY (MARCH 26, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 13. WIDE OF PEOPLE IN TERMINUS TRAIN STATION 2.06 14. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WATCHING DEPARTURE/ARRIVAL BOARD ANNOUNCING MANY TRAINS BEING CANCELLED 2.11 15. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) UNIDENTIFIED MAN, SAYING: "I think it's odd that they do these strikes always near weekends. I have worked all night and I cannot go to sleep. But Rome is beautiful, I'll find a bridge." 2.29 16. SLV TRAINS AT PLATFORM 2.35 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 10th April 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ROME, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVAANM9IQWVJUEZKIBW6KMP606ND
  • Story Text: Hundreds of housands of Italians took to the streets
    in a general strike to protest over pensions and to complain about
    a stalled economy.




    Hundreds of thousands of Italians took to the streets on
    Friday (March 26) in a general strike to protest against Prime
    Minister Silvio Berlusconi's plans for less generous pensions and
    to complain about a stalled economy.

    Many schools, post offices and banks were closed for
    the day and most sectors except airlines, whose workers
    plan to strike on April 5, staged four-hour stoppages.

    Strikers gathered in piazzas in Rome, Milan and the
    Sicilian capital Palermo to hear labour leaders list their
    grievances which include much more than just the
    government's unpopular plan to raise the retirement age.

    "We are here because we are fed up with the Berlusconi
    government," said one protester while others were chanting:
    "Berlusconi, go to jail!"
    Morning rush hour traffic was unaffected as bus and
    metro workers didn't begin to strike until 10 a.m. (0900
    GMT).

    Many of the people crowding subway and train stations
    trying to catch the last trains, however, showed sympathy
    for the protest.

    "Just look at all these people trying to get on trains
    and not fitting in...Contracts, pensions, everything is
    wrong. The only way is to protest till they give us back
    our rights said one man, just before heading to struggle
    with the crowd to catch on of the last running subway
    trains."
    Only few people seemed critical of the strike.

    "I think its odd that they do these strikes always near weekends.

    I have worked all night and I cannot go to sleep," said
    a man trying to get back to his home after a night's work
    in the Italian capital.

    As the strike drew to a close the main trade unions
    issued a statment saying that nearly 100% of their members
    had stopped working, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

    The final figures however will be clear only later.

    Nearly 60 demonstrations were due to be held around the
    country. A similar half-day strike in October by Italy's
    three biggest unions, which represent 11 million workers
    and pensioners, persuaded the government to water down its
    original pension reform, but that failed to mollify labour
    leaders.

    The pensions plan is meant to save 0.7 percent of GDP
    and is key to reducing the country's debt mountain and
    cutting an uncomfortably high budget deficit -- both areas
    of concern for European Union partners locked in a currency
    bloc with Italy.

    At present Italians can retire at 57 if they have paid
    into the system for 35 years. The pension system swallows
    about 15 percent of GDP -- a proportion which is likely to
    grow as the country's birth rate falls and people live
    longer.

    The government presented the bill, which would take
    effect from 2008, to parliament earlier this month, but
    immediately put off further debate until April 19. It is
    unlikely to push the plan through before June for fear of
    antagonising voters.

    Friday's industrial action is the third general strike
    since Berlusconi swept to power in 2001. There was a
    one-day stoppage
    in April 2002 over planned labour reform, which the
    government later modified.

    Berlusconi's first, short-lived government was toppled
    in 1994 over the same pensions issue.


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