(CNN) — Italy’s new national airline, ITA Airways, took to the skies last week, but all is not well on the ground of Italian aviation.
Former Alitalia flight attendants protested this week against job losses and pay cuts in a particularly Italian way — by taking their clothes off.
At the Campidoglio — the center of power in Rome for around 2,000 years, whose main square was redesigned by Michelangelo — about 50 female former flight attendants, who turned up in their Alitalia uniforms, then removed them to stand in their underwear, chanting “We are Alitalia.”
Theirs was a demonstration to protest not only against their job losses, but also against the contracts awarded to those who have been retained by ITA Airways.
Trade unions say that those who have stayed are being paid less.
One ITA Airways flight attendant told CNN that as well as taking a pay cut, they have lost seniority, and are no longer told far in advance where and when they will be working.
And the new uniforms, fixtures and fittings are a work in progress, with the airline in top secret talks with major brands, he said.
Source: www.cnn.com