Italy: Wildcat strikes breaks Olympics truce

A wildcat work stoppage this evening by ground employees paralysed Turin’s airport and broke an Olympic games truce with local unions less than three weeks before the Winter Games in the north-western Italian city.

The labour stoppage was forcing some flights to land at other Italian airports, and leaving travellers stranded after their flights did not depart.

An AP reporter at the airport said the few employees working told travellers that no more flights would leave for the rest of the day.

Turin airport spokesman Roberto Bergandi said workers were protesting plans to fire 11 ground workers.

A local truce covering the airport began some 10 days earlier, while a nationwide truce was slated to begin on January 31. The Olympics are scheduled for February 10-26.

Meanwhile, an official from a union for workers involved in an unrelated labour dispute with Alitalia raised the possibility that if that airline’s employees remain dissatisfied with efforts to resolve their complaints they could violate the nationwide Olympics truce with strikes.

Protests by Alitalia workers forced the airline to cancel at least 173 flights.

Bergandi said it was not immediately clear how many flights would be cancelled or diverted from Turin.

Some passengers who were supposed to fly from Turin to London were being transferred by bus to Milan’s Malpensa airport.

Bergandi said some passengers had to wait inside planes that had landed just before the stoppage began because no one was immediately available to assist them off the plane.