Rome, May 08: The Italian government and labour unions agreed on a preliminary plan to rescue the struggling airline Alitalia — a set of measures that includes a management shake-up and calls for fresh funding, but makes no reference to job cuts.
The agreement came on Thursday at the end of four days of negotiations between the government, which owns 62% of the company, and management and labour representatives.
It came a month ahead of local and European elections, an important test for Premier Silvio Berlusconi. Many in the government had been eager to save a national symbol like Alitalia.
“We are convinced the company can continue its business and develop,” economy minister Giulio Tremonti said after the agreement. “The new management will present a credible industrial plan for development that can win the approval of workers, shareholders and investors.”
All nine unions involved in the talks accepted the government proposals, deputy premier Gianfranco Fini told a news conference after the accord was reached.
Job cuts, which unions have opposed for months, do not figure in the current government proposals, said Sandro Degni of the UGL union’s transport chapter. Previous plans had called for thousands of layoffs at the airline’s 21,000-member work force.
“I really think the new plan will be different from the old ones,” Mr Degni said.
Details of the plan remained sketchy. Mr Degni said the government intends to draft a new proposal and that it would take months to work out the details, although Mr Tremonti said it was a matter of days.
The unions would have a role in drafting the final version, Mr Degni said. Mr Fini said that under the agreement, unions committed themselves to suspending all labour actions — a turning point after months of strikes.
As part of its strategy, the government asked for the resignation of Alitalia’s CEO and its chairman and proposed the appointment of state railroad chief Giancarlo Cimoli, who Mr Fini said, would head a slimmed-down Alitalia board of directors. The government wants to reduce the size of the company’s nine-person board.
Bureau Report
