Staff protests cause further disruptions at Alitalia - Travel Airport News

Airport news for Travel on 13/11/2008.

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Some of Alitalia’s pilots and flight attendants continued their work slowdown on Wednesday, and by 0830 GMT, the carrier had to cancel 18 flights, meaning that hundreds of passengers were stranded.

On Tuesday, 124 flights had to be cancelled.

The airline’s staff that are protesting do not agree with the new employee contracts that are part of the plan proposed to rescue the bankrupt carrier. An Italian investor group, CAI, has put forth a plan, agreed by most unions representing the airline’s workers, in which it would invest a billion euros in the carrier.

Pilots and flight attendants involved in the protest are carrying out the minimum work that their contracts require, and in the process slowing down the airline’s operations, in an attempt to bring management back to the bargaining table.

Airline management and government representatives have indicated that they will not negotiate again, and are prepared to hire individual pilots and flight attendants to resume normal operations.

The EU transport commissioner, Antonio Tajani, approved the takeover plan, but stressed that Alitalia had to pay back a loan of 300 million euro to the Italian government, according to an AP report.

Sale of the carrier’s assets would be followed by the formation of a more efficient and smaller Italian-owned airline, the commissioner added.

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