Ita Airways, the company-union agreement is broken: first strike

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The agreement between Ita Airways and the unions that will proclaim a four-hour strike by ground staff and flight attendants – there is talk of February 28, but the date has not yet been made official – is missing, in support of salary increases, to adjust the employee payrolls, set at the levels of a start-up, to those of the national collective agreement for air transport (specific section of carriers). At the Ministry of Labour, during the conclusion of the cooling-off procedure, the split between the parties took place: yet in the long negotiations the company and the unions had reached a pre-agreement on wage increases.

Protests are being made while negotiations with Lufthansa are in an advanced stage

It will not escape notice that the strike falls just as the exclusive negotiations with Lufthansa are in an advanced state, intending to acquire 40% of Ita Airways and then, when the company has become profitable, acquire the remaining share held by the Mef. In this context, Ita Airways has made it a condition that the salary increases, leading to an increase in the cost of labour, are shared by the new shareholder with whom the new business plan will be drawn up. The company representatives also said they wanted to inform the Board of the change in the current contractual arrangements, defined with the agreement of December 2, 2021. The meeting of the Board should be held in the middle of next week, but unions and professional associations wanted to leave the Ministry of Labor with a closed and fully enforceable agreement, as a condition for giving up calling for a strike.

The trade union front accuses the company’s board of directors

The decision was taken jointly by Filt Cgil, Fit Cisl, Uiltrasporti, Ugl and Anpac, Anpav and Anp. «The company has inexplicably shown unacceptable rigidity by refusing to sign an agreement built together over the long months of negotiations – the general secretary Claudio Tarlazzi and the national secretary Ivan Viglietti of Uiltrasporti comment -. It is the first strike of the Ita Airways era made necessary due to the insane unreasonableness of some members of the company’s Board of Directors. We ask for the immediate intervention of the shareholder to prevent these positions from undermining the growth path of Ita Airways and putting the alliance with Lufthansa at risk”.