Parfym

ttt

Wildfire

the most recent news i could find is that the unions are opposed to the plan but are continuing to negotiate.

How bad were the strikes they had in April/May?

nibblette

I was caught by the Alitalia strikes in May even though I was traveling on BA. The strike had gone on longer than initially planned. The Rome airport was a mess. So many people trying to get on any flight out. Long lines everywhere, mass confusion, lots of frustrated, upset people. On top of that, the staff was less than helpful. They often just walked away when they wanted to take a break, even if no replacement had come and with a line of people in front of them, making a difficult situation worse.
I was originally going to Italy on Alitalia for a autumn vacation but decided to go elsewhere partly because of the previous experience. I'm glad, I don't think I could take waiting around for 7 hours again with the airport in chaos.

GAC

TOMORROW is the deadline, but things are looking up, according to Italian press reports. Alitalia might just survive after all, at least in the short term.

TopMan

Well, considering the fact that you first posted about this on 24 August and we are now 14 days into September that means 22 days actually is today...with math like that from a CEO I'm not so convinced about company survival!

GAC

NO! 22 days from August 24 is September 15, tomorrow!

Wildfire

the news seems to be the pilots will work more hours for less pay...seems that is making everyone enthusiastic about the agreement,,,,but are the layoffs still imminent?

HappyCheesehead

Interesting that effective tomorrow, September 15, Northwest Airlines is also a member of the Star Alliance.

almesq

Yes, there will still be layoffs, unions are just trying to get some concessions on the number, and also get a committment from the government to give laid off workers unemployment benefits, which the government seems willing to do. I have read that the layoffs will not be immediate, it will take some time to implement, and the plan calls for making those layoffs over the next year or two. Once the plan is in place (which it hopefully will be soon), then they will have to start the process of deciding how and where to make the cuts.
I'm leaving for Italy this Friday on Alitalia (hopefully!) but I haven't canceled my back up tickets on Delta quite yet.

almesq

For all of you watching this story, here's a link to the latest just out.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news...p;refer=europe

In short, the pilots just agreed to a new contract. They have increased their hours and taken a pay cut of about one-third. The unions are now negotiating new contracts for flight attendants and ground staff, and the union said they are hopeful a similar deal can be reached today.
Let's keep our fingers crossed.

PLMN

Thank goodness. And here is this:

http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?do...-eng.oggitalia

Fingers crossed, and toes crossed, and....

nonnafelice

Re: "the pilots just agreed to a new contract. They have increased their hours and taken a pay cut of about one-third. The unions are now negotiating new contracts for flight attendants and ground staff, and the union said they are hopeful a similar deal can be reached today."

The deadline for the agreement has now been extended to Sep 20.

I was also interested in this tidbit from the Wall St Journal:

"The pilots, who have for years enjoyed greater benefits than their counterparts at other European airlines, agreed to fly nearly double their current 450 hours per year and to have a larger part of their salaries based on how much they work. This will amount to a pay cut of up to 15%, according to people close to the unions."

450 hours a year works out to less than 9 hours a week. Who wouldn't like working hours like that? No wonder Alitalia has been in trouble!

PLMN

Looks good for flights scheduled Oct 3 and Oct 17, right?

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/BUSINESS...alitalia.reut/

Now what about Delta? Should we worry about them?