Roman buses, Milanese trams and Venetian vaporetti were again stuck in their depots today as Italian public transport workers staged new wildcat strikes despite a deal over pay clinched by unions and transport firms.
In the financial capital, Milan, Christmas shoppers struggled to get to the city centre as almost all public transport ground to a halt for the second day running, raising fears of poor festive season sales.
In Venice, a bare minimum of water-buses linked islands to the centre, but within the lagoon city itself tourists and Christmas shoppers had no choice but to go on foot.
Hopes by long-suffering Italian commuters that a deal on Saturday evening would end a series of official and wildcat public transport stoppages were quickly dashed as thousands of workers rejected the agreement and refused to go back to work.
Public transport job contracts expired in 2001 and workers had demanded a pay rise of €106 a month while firms were proposing an increase of just €41 euros.
Large trade unions and the transport firms reached compromise in government-mediated talks at €81 a month plus a one-off payment of €970, but many workers said the raise would not cover their loss of purchasing power.
The stoppages prompted worries of repeats of a December 1st wildcat strike that paralysed Milan, the financial capital.