Millions of Italians Take to the Streets in a General Strike

The New York Times, April 17, 2002 
By MELINDA HENNEBERGER


ROME, April 16 - In the first daylong general strike here
in 20 years, millions of Italian workers stopped assembly
lines and made travel all but impossible today to protest
the conservative government's plans to create a more
flexible labor market. 

Some 13 million workers stayed home, according to the
unions, and 2 million marched in various demonstrations
across the country. 

The strike was seen as a major test for the unions, which
have always been able to fend off labor reform, as well as
for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who campaigned on the
issue. 

Big companies like Fiat and Pirelli were hit hardest by the
work stoppage. 

Alitalia canceled two-thirds of its flights and few trains
or buses were running. Most banks, schools and post offices
closed, though the stock exchange in Milan stayed open, as
did most stores. 

At day's end, unions said the strike was a monumental
success and Mr. Berlusconi said he was not backing down. 

It will be some time before the struggle is settled,
though, as the union leader, Sergio Cofferati, acknowledged
in an interview tonight. "I want to see the real effect of
the strike on the government and on the companies" in the
days ahead, he said. 

Both sides said they were amenable to restarting
negotiations under certain conditions, and ultimately, some
kind of compromise is expected. 

Mr. Berlusconi's center-right coalition easily has the
votes in Parliament to make good on his campaign promise on
labor reform. But the prime minister does not want to be
seen as raising social tensions at a time when there is
already some concern over threats of domestic as well as
international terrorism. 

It is also a particularly delicate moment to push the
measure, on which Italians are divided, because municipal
elections are coming up at the end of May. The last general
strike, though shorter than the one today, contributed to
the fall of Mr. Berlusconi's first government in 1994. 

But at the same time, the prime minister is also under
pressure from the business lobby, which recently complained
that he is not moving quickly enough to make it easier to
fire workers in Italy, where many now enjoy effective
lifetime job security. 

Though the actual changes he has proposed are considered
minor, labor leaders see this as the first step in a
government plan to undermine job security. Then, too, Mr.
Cofferati, who leads the largest Italian union, is
considered a rising star on the left. 

The unions did succeed well enough that there was no
television coverage of today's demonstrations - since
journalists, too, were on strike. 

Much of the center of Rome became a street carnival as
protesters waved huge puppets of Mr. Berlusconi dressed as
Napoleon and as the pope. Roberto Benigni, the actor and
film maker, told a crowd in the Piazza del Popolo that he
would not speak because he, too, was on strike. 

Yet labor reform is taken very seriously here. A government
aide who helped draft the proposed changes to the labor law
was assassinated several weeks ago, and a left-wing
domestic guerilla group took responsibility. Another man
who had worked on a similar law under a center-left
government was murdered three years ago. 

Since the Berlusconi government consultant, Marco Biagi,
was killed earlier this month by an offshoot of the Red
Brigades terrorist group, several members of the government
further inflamed the situation by blaming labor for
indirectly causing his death. 

Union leaders then walked out of negotiations and tens of
thousands of demonstrators marched across Italy, to protest
the suggestion of a link between labor and terrorism. 

Yet for all this, the effect of the proposed change in the
law is relatively insignificant: It would allow companies
that now have fewer than 15 workers to dismiss any new
hires without having to prove just cause in court. 

Under the current system, courts usually force companies to
take back fired workers and pay back wages. Also, since the
change only affects new contracts, no one who is currently
employed would be affected, including the union members who
were on strike today. 

Both sides agree, in fact, that the fight is not over the
law itself. 

This is just a first step in a plan to undermine labor and
slowly strip workers of their rights, Mr. Cofferati said. 

Government officials, meanwhile, say labor leaders are less
worried about workers than preserving their own power. 

"The reforms are not sufficient to explain this nuclear
war," said Renato Brunetta, who helped craft the proposed
bill.