Alitalia Threaten Strike

In the true spirit of the Olympics, ie putting money first, Alitalia SpA pilots and flight attendants plan to strike on the eve and the first day of next month's Winter Olympics in Turin.

Needless to say this will cause havoc for arriving fans.

Cabin crews are set to strike for 24 hours on February 10th, the day of the opening ceremony, and pilots are scheduled to stage a four-hour protest the previous day.

The Turin organising committee spokesman, Giuseppe Gattino, said that the situation is being "monitored".

The strike is going ahead, despite the fact that local Turin unions signed an "Olympic Truce" in November. However, an agreement to suspend protests on a national level is still being discussed.

The 24-hour strike by flight attendants was originally scheduled for November 28, but was postponed due to the proximity of another strike.

According to Mauro Rossi, an official with transport union FILT-CGIL:

"It's a dispute that has been going on for a long time, and to postpone the strike we would need something really concrete from Alitalia."

He added that the date wasn't timed to coincide with the Olympics, but was the result of the postponement. Allegedly it would be difficult to postpone the strike again because the Easter holidays begin shortly after the games, and strikes are banned during that period.

Believe that, and you will believe anything!

Poor Ticket Sales For Turin

With only one month to go until the start of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, only half of the one million tickets have been sold.

In theory, organisers hope to eventually sell around 850K tickets. However, expectations of a boost after the Olympic torch began its two-month tour the length and breadth of Italy in early December have not been realised.

The main problem is that there has been little or no publicity in Italy for the Games.

Italy-wide advertising has suffered from cuts in marketing expenses during a series of cash crises over the past year.