Alitalia: Ryan & Easy Make it a Tough Go...

Alitalia may cut up to 2,600 jobs in its first mass lay-offs since the airline was privatized, union sources said on Monday, citing a restructuring plan the company approved last week to cut costs and keep its planes in the air.

"The numbers in the restructuring plan talk about 2,500-2,600 job cuts - 1,300 are fixed-term contracts and then there is talk of 220 pilots, 400 cabin staff and 600-700 ground staff," one of the sources told Reuters.
Italy's unions have said they were gearing up for a battle should job cuts at the airline compound the situation for workers already struggling in a grim economic environment.

The response would be "very, very hard", Susanna Camusso, head of the CGIL union, said in a radio interview last week.
More than a third of its staff were laid off when the company was privatized five years ago.
Alitalia remains a political hot potato for the fragile coalition government of Enrico Letta, and any tough restructuring of the ailing flag carrier to suit a foreign investor would rankle.
An Alitalia spokeswoman said the revised industrial plan only mentioned cost cuts and did not specifically refer to any redundancies at this stage.:(