The article below from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@xxxxxxxxx /--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\ I HEART HUCKABEES - OPENING IN SELECT CITIES OCTOBER 1 From David O. Russell, writer and director of THREE KINGS and FLIRTING WITH DISASTER comes an existential comedy starring Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Hupert, Jude Law, Jason Schwartzman, Lily Tomlin, Mark Wahlberg and Naomi Watts. Watch the trailer now at: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/huckabees/index_nyt.html \----------------------------------------------------------/ Unions Vow to Fight Alitalia's Planned Layoffs September 8, 2004 By ERIC SYLVERS MILAN, Sept. 7 - A day after the airline Alitalia said that it would cut 5,000 jobs, reducing its work force by almost 25 percent, its unions promised to fight the layoffs through a variety of actions, from more negotiations to brief hunger strikes. As union leaders outlined their responses to the planned job cuts, they were united in blaming management for the dire financial situation of Alitalia, the government-operated airline that has posted operating losses for five years and has warned that it will run out of cash at the end of the month. On Tuesday, the biggest unions were most conciliatory, indicating there may be room for Alitalia's chief executive, Giancarlo Cimoli, to negotiate a settlement. "We will remain at the negotiating table because the proposed plan is no good," Guglielmo Epifani, the leader of Italy's largest union, the General Italian Labor Confederation, was quoted by the news agency Ansa as saying. "Exaggerated forms of struggle are not useful." Alitalia said late Monday that the job cuts, which would be carried out in the next two years and would save 315 million euros ($380 million) in that period, are needed for the airline to recoup ground lost to competitors in recent years. Alitalia's 21,000-person payroll could be trimmed by another 1,000 employees as short-term contracts are not renewed. The Unitary Base Confederation, the most radical of Alitalia's more than 10 unions, said that its members had begun a "rotating hunger strike," in which four Alitalia employees do not eat for a day and are followed by four other employees the next day. Pierpaolo Leonardi, a national coordinator of the union, said the 700 Alitalia workers his organization represents might also block the runways again at Rome's Fiumicino airport in coming days. Some of the most radical unions banded together in April and May to block access to Fiumicino, Alitalia's main hub, and forced the airline to cancel more than 1,000 flights. At the time it became clear that the airline's unions had varied priorities, as some opposed the action. The different groups represent different types of workers, including pilots, flight attendants, telephone operators, maintenance workers and marketing specialists. The Unitary Base Confederation broke off negotiations with Alitalia in May. The union's members are mostly maintenance workers but include clerks at check-in desks and other workers inside the airports. "It is clear that a restructuring is necessary, but not like what the company is proposing," Mr. Leonardi said in a telephone interview. "We have stopped negotiating with the management because we are not interested in taking part in a social massacre. The cost of labor is not the problem," he said. "The problem is inept management, and therefore we are calling for the government, Alitalia's biggest shareholder, to step in and get involved." More moderate unions - including the General Italian Labor Confederation, which is known by the initials C.G.I.L. - said they would keep negotiating with Alitalia's management to try to gain concessions. C.G.I.L. also called on the government, which owns 62 percent of Alitalia, to play a role in the negotiations. The union's leaders and their counterparts at most of the airline's other unions said they would not hold strikes in the coming weeks. The first signs of renewed labor unrest connected to Alitalia's restructuring plan came the same day that Loyola de Palacio, the European Union transport commissioner, said the Italian government must follow through on a pledge to lower its stake in the national carrier to less than 50 percent. The commissioner's office also said the job cuts were unavoidable if Alitalia was to make a financial turnaround. Mr. Cimoli has said that Alitalia has money to cover salaries and other costs only through the end of the month, after which bankruptcy proceedings would be the only option. A loan of 400 million euros, guaranteed by the Italian government, will be released to Alitalia if the unions accept the restructuring plan by Sept. 15. That loan would be used to finance operations over the next six months, while the airline would try to raise fresh capital, probably through the sale of new shares to a private investor. The restructuring plan formulated by Mr. Cimoli would split Alitalia into two companies, one for flight operations and the other for ground operations. Union leaders have said Alitalia plans to direct the fresh capital only to the company that runs flight operations. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/08/business/worldbusiness/08alitalia.html?ex=1095658028&ei=1&en=a28947cd624832a7 --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. 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