Thousands of Alitalia employees turn to Air France

More than 2,300 Alitalia employees have signed an open letter, in which they expressed their support for Air France-KLM’s recently revoked offer to purchase Italy’s ailing airline, and laid the blame for the failure of this deal squarely with the trade unions that vehemently opposed the purchase. According to these Alitalia workers, “irresponsibility and pure political motivation” defined the activities of labour unions during the take-over talks. The airline’s employees then sent a letter expressing their support for the Air France offer to the Franco-Dutch carrier’s CEO, Cyril Spinetta, as well as to the Italian government and to the population of Italy.

The 2,300 pro-Air France employees observed that until now they have been unable to speak openly and honestly about their feelings concerning the deal. In their first public statement, however, these airline workers clearly sided with Alitalia’s management—which strongly backed the Air France deal to scoop up the airline in order to save it from bankruptcy—and observed that the AF-KLM offer was the “only industrial and financial solution which was solid and credible”. The clearly disappointed Alitalia employees went further to suggest that the hostile behaviour displayed by Italian unions was “quite suspicious” and also insinuated that labour leaders did not take into consideration that the livelihood of thousands of employees and union members hanged in the balance. The signatories also seemed to be opposed to the 300 million euro loan, currently offered by the government, and noted that Air France’s offer was far preferable and that it was the only viable long-term solution for the airline.

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