ROME: Bankrupt Alitalia cancelled 40 flights yesterday after a small union called a four-hour strike to protest layoffs and other tough measures in a rescue plan by potential investors.
The Italian airline is fighting for its survival as unions balk at accepting terms including longer hours, layoffs and reductions in routes and in the number of aircraft.
Alitalia’s web site warned passengers about the walkout by the Cub union, scheduled to last from noon to 4pm. Affected flights included domestic routes and flights across Europe.
The strike was the latest headache for the Italian government, which is trying to unload its 49.9-per cent stake in Alitalia while keeping the airline from collapsing.
“Whoever calls a strike during negotiations shows great irresponsibility,” Transport Minister Altero Matteoli told Sky TG24 TV.
Alitalia’s new administrator, August Fantozzi, warned that either the unions sign a deal with the potential investors today or the company will go down.
If an agreement isn’t reached today, “we’ll have to bring the books to (bankruptcy) court,” the Italian news agency ANSA quoted Fantozzi as saying. Alitalia’s funds will last “for just a little.”
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi told reporters in Paris, where he met with President Nicolas Sarkozy, that the government’s guarantees of 80 per cent pay for up to eight years for 3,250 workers who would be laid off under a reorganisation plan could not be extended to all of Alitalia’s 20,000 employees.
The government and Italian investors are prepared to inject e1bn into the loss-making airline assuming unions go along with the deal. But the various unions have bickered among themselves over which concessions to make.
The rescue plan foresees the takeover of profitable assets by a group of Italian investors and a merger with Alitalia’s main domestic competitor, Air One. The investors are also shopping around for one or more foreign airlines to take a minority stake.
Air France-KLM has expressed interest, but Berlusconi on Monday night also pointed to Lufthansa as an “ideal partner.” Air France walked away from a deal last spring to buy the government’s controlling stake following union objections and in the heat of a national election campaign during which Berlusconi pledged to find an Italian solution.