Strike causes third day of delays at Alitalia

Alitalia had to cancel more flights on Wednesday as the protest by some of its pilots and flight attendants entered its third day. By 0830 GMT, 18 flights had been cancelled, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded.

On Tuesday, the airline was forced to cancel 124 flights.

A group of Italian investors has proposed new employee contracts as part of its rescue plan for the bankrupt national carrier. The group, known as CAI, is investing one billion euros in Alitalia.

Pilots and flight attendants belonging to four of the major unions representing Alitalia employees are protesting the proposed contracts via a ‘work to rule’ labour action. They are doing the minimum work required by their contracts, slowing the operations of the airline and hoping to convince management to take their grievances seriously.

Representatives of the reorganized carrier and government officials have said they would not reopen negotiations with the unions, and instead have threatened to hire individual pilots and flights attendants as needed.

The transport commissioner for the EU, Antonio Tajani, commented on Wednesday that he had approved the Alitalia takeover plan, but warned that the airline must pay back a loan of 300 million euro to Italy’s government, according to a report in the Associated Press (AP).

Tarjani noted that the sale of the carrier’s assets would be followed by the formation of a smaller Italian airline that could operate with greater efficiency, the AP report stated.

www.alitalia.com