TALKS TO get all Alitalia's unions on board for a job-cutting rescue by Italian investors were ongoing last night as pilots and crew have not signed up to an initial deal agreed by other unions to stave off bankruptcy.
Despite fears it might cancel flights due to difficulties in buying fuel, state-owned Alitalia flew as normal yesterday as the crisis talks continued and all sides said it remained on a knife edge.
"We have arrived at a point where things either come to fruition or they break," said Raffaele Bonanni, head of CISL, one of the four unions which signed up to the framework deal. "If they break, we'll be squandering one of the richest markets in the world of aviation and, above all, we will lose 20,000 jobs," Mr Bonanni said.
Another union that backed the framework accord, FILT-CGIL, said the conditions were not in place for a full-blown agreement.
Five other labour groups, representing pilots and cabin crew, oppose the rescue plan altogether, fearing huge job and salary cuts. The government called talks with those groups for last night and today, hoping to break the deadlock.
Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi stressed the alternative to the rescue proposal was bankruptcy.
Speaking on a television show he said Lufthansa would be the best international partner for a revived Alitalia.
He had opposed the carriers planned sale to Air France-KLM earlier this year.
- (Reuters)
