Millions heed Italian strike call

Thousands gather in Florence to hear union leader Sergio Cofferati

ROME, Italy -- Millions of Italians staged a general strike on Tuesday against government labour reforms bringing the nation virtually to a standstill.

Union leaders pronounced their day of action a huge success as tens of thousands took to the streets to fill city centres with carnival-like demonstrations.

Air and rail transport ground to a halt, schools, banks and post offices shut down and production lines at many top firms stood idle in Italy's first full-day work stoppage in 20 years.

Italy's three biggest unions estimated that as many as 13 million people had heeded Tuesday's strike call out of a total workforce of 21 million. They said at least two million had taken part in protest rallies up and down the country.

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Independent observers told Reuters they thought the number of strikers was closer to six million.

Claiming a victory for "people power," union leaders said Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would have to back down and drop controversial plans to make it easier for companies to fire staff in some circumstances.

The centre-right government, elected last year on a promise to modernise Italy, said it was ready to resume negotiations.

But it indicated that it was not prepared to abandon its reforms, which became even more emotive last month when one of their authors, government advisor Marco Biagi, was assassinated by left-wing extremists.

"This is an extraordinary day," Sergio Cofferati, the leader of Italy's largest union, the CGIL, told a demonstration in the Renaissance city of Florence.

"Government and business will realise that we won't stop until we have reached our objectives."

The industrial disruption was centred on one particular element of Berlusconi's labour plans -- Article 18 which states that a company with more than 15 employees must reinstate a worker if a court finds that he or she was sacked without "just cause."

It is only a small part of the planned legislation but the government insists it is necessary to change the arcane legislation to modernise Italian labour laws and bring them more in line with the European Union.

But the unions say it will make it easier for firms to sack staff and lead to massive job losses.

Berlusconi was quoted by Reuters news agency as telling a meeting of employers' leaders on the weekend: "The strike will stop part of the country, but it will not stop our determination to modernise the country."

The government is preparing further reforms to try and alleviate the tension, primarily a new system of unemployment benefits.

Details are vague, but the government has hinted it will establish a 1.5 billion euro ($1.3 billion) jobless fund -- much less than Italy's largest and most left-wing union, the CGIL, says is necessary.

The union's leader Sergio Cofferati is increasingly becoming the focus for the opposition following the election of the centre-right government of Berlusconi last June.

Cofferati was behind March's rally. Relations between the government and unions deteriorate with the killing of a labour reformer last month by left-wing militants. (Full story)

Some coalition ministers sparked outrage by identifying the assassins with the unions.