Unions mull ‘last chance’ offer to save Alitalia

Investors have given unions just hours to agree to a drastic plan to save Alitalia, the Italian national airline, from collapse.

The CAI group was persuaded to come up with a rescue package by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

After failing to sell its stake in the carrier, this was the government’s last throw of the dice.

But workers and their representatives are divided over the deal, which will mean thousands of job cuts, lower pay and reduced benefits.

Only three of Alitalia’s nine unions have said they are ready to accept the offer.

The biggest union is still pushing for changes to the plan.

The mood across the country is grim. In a street in Rome one man said: “The company has to be saved, otherwise it’ll bring the country to its knees and 20,000 families will be in crisis.”

Another said: “It’s a really complex situation but I think the unions will be forced to accept the deal. The alternative is bankruptcy. If someone had intervened before the situation would have been different.”

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