Italy's flagship company Fiat today announced it will lay-off 8,100 car and component workers, foreshadowing an autumn of industrial unrest for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government.
The announcement came in a restructuring plan presented to unions in Rome and designed to save the Turin company's loss-making subsidiary Fiat Auto, but it sparked immediate political and union protest.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose government has come under fire from unions and business leaders for its 2003 budget, convened a meeting of key ministers to discuss the crisis tonight.
Those called to Berlusconi's Palazzo Chigi offices in central Rome included Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini, Industry Minister Antonio Marzano and Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti and Labour Minister Roberto Maroni.
The FIOM, FIM and UILM metalworkers unions immediately called a four-hour strike for Friday at the Fiat group.
"The unions are asking for talks to be held at government level and no longer at company level," said UILM member Mr Tonino Regazzi.
The announcement, designed to stave off what many see an in imminent sale of Fiat Auto to US giant General Motors, will stoke an already fraught climate of industrial unrest in Italy, facing its second general strike in six months on October 18th.
AFP