ITALY STRIKE-BOUND

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31906, 6 February 1969, Page 11

ITALY STRIKE-BOUND

(N.Z.P.A.’Reuter—Copyright» ROME. Feb. 5. Italy is at a standstill today because about 20 million Italians have stopped work in the largest general strike since the Second World War.

When the 24-hour strike for higher pensions became, effective at midnight, the police took stringent security! measures throughout the country in case of violence; during the marches called by, workers in the major cities. In Rome itself police guards took up positions round both Houses of Parliament, and special stockpiles of riot equipment such as tear-gas grenades, batons, helmets, and shields, were at hand. During the last and smaller national strike over pensions, on November 14, thousands of people marched through the streets of Rome, a building was set on fire in Trieste and police clashed with demonstrators in several other places. In the last 10 days there have been several bloody incidents, beginning with the setting on fire of a university building in Naples. There were at least 30 attempts to smash fuel pumps during a petrol attendants’ strike last week: and on Monday 50 de-

| monstrators were arrested at I (Fondi after a series of vio- I I lent clashes. The country’s three major; trade unions, which called! the strike have dismissed as| inadequate the pension rises; proposed by the Centre-Left, i Government, a coalition of!] Christian-Democrats, Social-' i ists and Republicans formed! after long and difficult nego-l tiations by the Prime Minis- ! : ter (Mr Mariano Rumor).

, Nine out of 10 Italian ! workers, comprising more! ! than a third of the country’s population, are affected by: . the strike. All workers in in-; dustry. agriculture and com-Jj-merce are involved. Tele’ ision, restaurants. ; shops, buses, taxis, theatres i and the Italian airline, AlitaI lia. are all stopping work for [ varving periods. ; The Italian news agency. A.N.S.A.. a’- J the national newspapers closed 10 hours . before the main strike began, to impo-e a news black-out; • The main category of worki ers not affected by the strike . are State employees, such as . schoolteachers and civil ser- ’ vants. The trade unions have denied criticism that the cost , of the strike. 35.000 million ’ lire (about SNZ4Sm) is too . damaging to the national ! economy to be worth while. ■ They say the present State i pensions are far too low for i a developed country. About : three-quarters of Italy’s pen- ■ sioners receive 25.000 lire

(about SNZ3S or less a month). Government spokesmen say there were no grounds for the strike because the pension negotiations had been going well. The Government has; offered to raise pensions by 70; per cent, but the unions are holding out for 80 peT cent. ; ' Another national strike, ‘ i this time in private industry, ■ (is planned for February 12.1 ! With stoppages by postmen I

on February 10 and by teachers on February 10, observers hold out little hope of a return to industrial peace in the near future.