Alitalia Flight Attendants Stage Strike

ROME – Flight attendants for Italy’s state-controlled airline Alitalia walked off the job Tuesday at the start of a 48-hour strike, with travelers facing delays and cancellations.

The walkout, which started shortly after midnight, was scheduled to last through Wednesday night.

The Sult union that called the strike said its members would work between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. and then again from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. each day, to allow a truce period for travelers.

Strikers were risking fines for defying a transport ministry order to postpone the strike. The ministry said that not enough advance notice had been given for the strike.

Alitalia said it had canceled 21 flights ahead of the strike, warning passengers and booking them on other flights, but insisted the cancellations were not caused by Sult’s protest.

Alitalia said the cancellations were due to shortage of aircraft and local labor unrest in Turin and Bologna unrelated to the national strike.

“These statements by the company are a bit strange,” said Sult spokesman Fabrizio Tomaselli. He contended Alitalia had been forced to scrub the flights because of the flight attendant walkout.

Sult and Alitalia have been locked in a dispute over recognizing the union.

The strike was originally set for Aug. 30-31, but was postponed by a week because Italian law prohibits transport strikes during the heavy travel weeks of August.