Italy Faces Transport Chaos as Workers Strike

Negotiations did not produce a solution to public transport problems so we cannot call off the national eight-hour strike called for Friday.

Italian transport unions plan a day of strikes on Friday that will stop planes, trains, buses and ferries for most of the day.

Central Rome was brought to a halt for a second consecutive day on Thursday by taxi drivers staging a separate protest which would compound Friday's transport chaos if it continued.

Unions said flights would be grounded on Friday between 1000-1400 GMT and many more will be disrupted by workers staging walkouts for the last four hours of their shift. Train, bus, ferry and motorway operators will strike for most of the day.

Transport union chief Claudio Claudiani announced the major stoppage late on Wednesday after the breakdown of talks with the government over public-sector cutbacks in the 2008 budget and the overhaul of state airline Alitalia, which is up for sale.

Negotiations "did not produce a solution to public transport problems so we cannot call off the national eight-hour strike called for Friday," Claudiani said in a statement.

Hundreds of Rome taxi-drivers, fighting Mayor Walter Veltroni's plans to issue 500 new taxi licenses to try to match demand, blocked the central Piazza Venezia for much of Wednesday and again on Thursday, creating chaos for cars and buses.

Passengers arriving at Rome's two international airports found taxi ranks there empty and had to take buses, a situation that could be further complicated if taxi drivers stage further protests on Friday coinciding with the transport strike.

National trade union leader Raffaele Bonanni told reporters on Thursday ordinary commuters would suffer from the cutbacks.

"Commuters are reduced to third-world levels of service, but where does the government cut back? Right there," he said.