Big break pending for Italian car industry

Big break pending for Italian car industry

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Thu 12 Feb 2009 1:00 AM

The
Italian government recently proposed a short-term emergency bailout plan to
help the ailing automobile sector. The plan includes measures to boost the
sales of motorbikes, home appliances and furniture.

 

The bailout, which
would take effect immediately if passed, must be approved by parliament within
the next 60 days.

 

If the plan is adopted,
the incentives, which would expire at the end of the year, will include cash
bonuses for the purchase of new, greener cars, as well as the possibility of a
20 percent tax write-off on the purchase of home appliances and furniture.

 

Italy’s consumers
hailed the move but argue that more needs to be done to boost consumer
spending.

 

Contract to Italian firm sparks unrest

Protests end with accord favoring
UK workers

 

The wildcat strikes
that rippled through England in early February came to an end with a deal for
English unions.

 

The protest was
launched by angry British workers after Total’s Lindsey Oil refinery in
northeastern England awarded a 224-million-euro construction contract to an
Italian firm, IREM, that would have employed Italian and Portuguese workers.

 

Workers at other plants
in England immediately gave their support to the protest and joined in the
demand of ‘British jobs for British workers’.

 

The days of protest
attracted international media attention, and sparked a heated foreign labour
debate in Italy and Britain. Prime minister of England, Gordon Brown, condemned
the wildcat strikes as did the European Commission and the Italian government.
Workers in the European Union must be allowed to move freely by law, Brown
stressed, while Italian Foreign minister Franco Frattini asserted that ‘There
is free circulation of labour in the EU-of Italians in Britain and Britons in
Italy’.

 

However,
workers lashed out against Brown and refused to back down.
The stand-off ended when unions accepted a deal to hire British workers. Under the
accord, 100 extra jobs will be created for British workers at Total’s Lindsey
Oil refinery in addition to the 900 Italians and 200 Portuguese workers who
were originally signed on by Italian contractor IREM.

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