24-Hour National Strike Causes Flight Cancellations and Delays in Italy’s Airline-Airport Sector

A complicated day for those who had to fly today due to the 24-hour national strike in the airline-airport-related sector, which involved ground staff belonging to the basic unions Cub and Usb. The protest is for the renewal of the handling contract which expired six years ago. The greatest inconvenience for passengers occurred above all in northern airports such as Milan, Bergamo, Venice and Verona but also in Florence and Pisa. “It went well, in addition to the cancellations there were a series of delays, participation was quite good, especially in the north where we are more present and stronger”, explains Cub, but Catania was also “good”, where participation it is always “strong enough” and in the Tuscan ports, underlines the basic union. In detail, 60 and 20 flights were cancelled, respectively, at Malpensa and Linate. At the Marco Polo in Venice, 65 flights between arrivals and departures were canceled and at the same airport the ‘lost and found’ workers also joined the strike, Cub informs. And up to mid-afternoon in Florence around 40 flights between arrivals and departures had been cancelled, 50% of the total while in Pisa 25%.

However, there were few inconveniences at Rome Fiumicino. Ita Airways “was forced to cancel 30 domestic flights” across the entire network. But the situation in the Roman airport remained “fairly fluid” because the companies had reviewed operations, canceled some flights in advance and informed passengers in advance. To limit the inconvenience, ITA itself has also activated “an extraordinary plan”, rebooking the greatest possible number of travelers involved in the cancellations on the first available flights and 50% will be able to fly on the same day as the strike, explains the Italian company. As for other airports, in Catania 12 flights were canceled and another 8 rescheduled as “delays”, while in Palermo there were two canceled flights. In the Apulian airports there were nine cancellations: 4 in Bari and 5 in Brindisi. The National Civil Aviation Authority (Enac) reminds us that scheduled connections are guaranteed during the guaranteed time slots: from 7am to 10am and from 6pm to 9pm. The strike will end at 11.59pm this evening. The unions dispute the proposals “for inadequate wage increases, the increase in working hours without sufficient economic adjustment, the reversal of part of the proposed increases in favor of private social security and health care institutions”.

The salary increases “are inconsistent, says Cub. “Given a contractual validity of 10 years and a salary loss in reference to the cost of living of 400 euros per month, a total of 250 euros spread over three years is proposed”, underlines the union. “Instead of canceling the 24 incremental hours granted in the previous contractual renewal, an increase in hours to 38.5 hours per week will be formalized without any economic adjustment”, denounces the Cub.

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2023-09-08 15:24:00
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