Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Andrea Spinelli/GENOA
ALITALIA'S UNIONS have given a tentative go-ahead to the airline's increasingly urgent restructuring plans, agreeing to accept cost-cutting in exchange for three places on the board and an eventual 20% stake in the group.
The deal was finally thrashed out on 19 June, after close to 18h of negotiations in which management and unions talked throughout the night in an attempt to meet the deadline set by new Alitalia chief executive Domineco Cempella (Flight International, 19-25 June).
The basics of Cempella's rescue plan appear to have been left in place, including the central aim of cutting labour costs by L520 billion ($335 million), through a mix of job losses, a wage freeze and more flexible contracts.
Once the gains have been made, the unions will be paid with Alitalia shares amounting to "no less than 20% and no more than 30%" of the company. The airline's 1,800 pilots, 4,000 cabin crew and 12,000 ground staff (the number of which will be cut to 10,500 by the end of the decade) are to take the stake in roughly equal one-third shares.
The unions have also won their long-sought boardroom influence, with the right to nominate three of the 12 people on Alitalia's supervisory board.
Alitalia has not commented on the state of plans to move its long-haul operations to Milan's Malpensa Airport. Reports from Italy suggest that this is now in doubt. Instead, it appears that Alitalia will remain intact, but with short-haul low-cost operations based around the Avianova subsidiary.
The new agreement will go for approval by Alitalia's parent state-holding company, IRI. A meeting, which has already been delayed once by lack of union agreement, is set for 28 June.
IRI is now being asked, for an immediate L1,600 billion injection of new capital, with a second tranche due by early 1997. Italy has not yet notified the European Commission of its plans for the cash injection, but Alitalia believes that it will be approved, given the extent of the restructuring and the fact that the airline has not had any state cash since 1988.
Source: Flight International
