- Title: ITALY: STRIKING FIAT WORKERS DEMAND NEGOTATIONS ON SALARY INCREASE.
- Date: 4th May 2004
- Summary: (W5) ROME, ITALY (MAY 4, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. GV/MV: DEMONSTRATORS MARCHING (4 SHOTS) 0.19 2. (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) DEMONSTRATOR SAYING "Melfi is a particular aspect of a generalised attack on salaries." 0.27 3. GV: PEOPLE LOOKING OUT OF WINDOW 0.30 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) DEMONSTRATOR SAYING "We stand by our colleagues in Melfi. The
- Embargoed: 19th May 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ROME, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Reuters ID: LVA2GZTL8R6KJFGIVFWPMRV8070K
- Story Text: Striking Fiat workers from the plant of Melfi in
Southern Italy take to the streets in protest, demanding
negotiations on a salary rise.
About 3,000 demonstrators joined a group of workers
from a Fiat factory in Melfi on Tuesday (May 4, 2004) as they
travelled to Rome in a continued effort to get better wages
and better work conditions.
Led by a demonstrator holding a puppet representing a
skeleton dressed as a factory worker, protesters marched
through the streets of the Italian capital until they
reached Rome's Fiat headquarters.
"We are coming!" they chanted along the way, together
with slogans against the government and against Italian
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Melfi's Fiat workers had decided to continue their
two-week strike after negotiations between unions and Fiat
had stalled last Friday (April 30).
Demonstrators on Tuesday demanded negotiations
immediately resume. Most have expectations that it should
happen by the end of the week.
"Melfi is a particular aspect of a generalised attack
to salaries," said one of them.
"We stand by our colleagues in Melfi. There is a strong
attack against workers right now. But we are not afraid,
not even of the police charges. We've been charged by the
police in the past and we shall be attacked by them in the
future but we will go ahead to defend our rights and
salaries," said another protester.
The week-long labour dispute halted Fiat car-making
across the country, except for a brief interruption in the
workers' blockades that allowed vital car parts to leave
the factory and other Fiat factories to resume regular
output for a few days last week.
The blockade caused the lost production of about 30,000
cars, more than 1.5 percent of Fiat's annual sales.
Fiat shares were down 1.0 percent at 5.81 euros at 1115
GMT, compared with a 0.2 percent rise for the DJ Stoxx
index of European auto stocks.
Analysts have said the labour dispute would have
implications for Fiat's accounts only if the dispute
affected production across Italy for several weeks.
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