[news] Pensions strike paralyses Italy

[ron]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,1178869,00.html

Associated Press     Friday March 26, 2004

Pensions strike paralyses Italy

Commuters waited in vain for buses, factory workers stayed off assembly
lines and teachers stayed out of classrooms during a general strike in Italy
today.

The strike was over the Italian government's pension reform plan that would
force people to work longer before they can retire.

The nation's three main labour confederations had called a four-hour strike
in most of Italy, but unions in the area around Rome and in Sicily
lengthened it to eight hours.

Bus, tram and subway services in major cities virtually stopped. In Rome,
before the strike began, many buses were half-empty as thousands of
students, public employees and other workers stayed at home.

Banks warned customers earlier in the week that they might not be able to
guarantee service.

The Italian treasury put off an auction of short-term treasury bills to
Monday next week "to avoid any malfunction of the auction system which could
negatively affect prices, ultimately damaging investors".

A similar one-day general strike in October over the reforms almost
paralysed the nation.

The Italian news agency ANSA quoted Fiat offices in Turin as saying some
18.5% of its work force stayed away at its various plants, while union
officials were claiming at least 60% adherence.

The state railways said that 59% of medium and long-distance trains ran on
schedule during the four-hour morning strike. Air travellers, however, were
spared - for now - when airline unions put off the strike to April 5.

The conservative government of the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has
already watered down the pension reform bill to try to appease the unions
while still aiming to save more than £6bn a year.

The pension system - with many workers in past decades retiring in their
early 50s - is a huge drain on state coffers, making Italy one of the most
indebted countries in Europe.

Union leaders say the government only wants to save on pensions so it can
reduce taxes to boost its chances at the polls.

"To raise the pension age is an absolutely unacceptable thing," said Armando
Cossutta, a Communist party leader who joined a protest march and rally in
Rome. "The cost of living has gone up and jobs are at risk. We need a
different economic policy."

The government has said it is willing to talk to the unions about the
reforms if they can come up with a promising plan.

Public exasperation seemed directed at both politicians and unionists.

"I paid for my monthly ticket, and now, here I am, waiting for a bus that
probably won't come," said Pasqualino Jagone, a 70-year-old retired cafe
worker as he sat on a window ledge in Piazza Venezia, the heart of Rome.

"But the pension conditions are equally disgusting. I worked for 35 years,
and I have a monthly pension of about 400 euros (£260) which loses value
every day. And now the government wants people to work even more years for
the right to these insulting pensions?"