Cabin crew strike grounds nearly 400 Alitalia flights
au.biz.yahoo.com, 5/4/2007
ROME (AFP) - A 24-hour strike by Alitalia cabin personnel demanding the renewal of their collective bargaining convention grounded nearly 400 flights, the struggling Italian flagship airline said Thursday.
Of the airline's 711 flights scheduled Wednesday, 202 domestic and 154 international flights were cancelled, with a knock-on effect Thursday that saw a further 35 flights cancelled, the company said in a statement.
Seven unions representing cabin personnel called the strike after negotiations broke down last week with management over the renewal of their convention.
Union leader Claudio Genovesi said Wednesday that a new meeting with management was set for next Tuesday.
Alitalia has been suffering deep financial difficulties for several years, showing a loss of 405 million euros in (549 million dollars) in 2006, while turnover shrank by 1.5 percent to 4.7 billion euros.
The Italian government has a 49.9 percent stake in Alitalia and plans to sell at least 39.9 percent which would then force the buyer to make an offer for the rest of the company.
Lack of room for manoeuvre in restructuring the carrier in the face of strong unions ever prepared to stage crippling strikes is a major liability facing an eventual buyer, analysts believe.
Three main bidders have emerged, including Russian airline Aeroflot, a consortium of private equity groups and the owner of Italian airline Air One.
The cost of taking over Alitalia is estimated at about 1.5 billion euros -- its current stock market capitalisation -- plus the cost of renewing its ageing fleet of 183 aircraft and assuming its debt of about one billion euros.