News

Finance unions in Italy have secured a victory after reaching a first agreement with the Italian Banking Association (ABI).

The deal, which includes a Solidarity Fund to manage layoffs in case of a crisis and bargaining terms for a new national collective agreement, comes after two months of pressure from unions, media and the public.

Thousands of bank workers took to the streets of Milan, Rome and other major cities in October for Italy's first financial strike in 13 years. The action was a resounding success with a 90% participation level ensuring the closure of 92% of bank agencies.

In the face of public pressure, ABI, the Italian Banking Association, which had recently unilaterally cancelled the National Collective Agreement,  held its position for more than a month. But in December, the bankers finally changed their mind and on Friday 20th, late in the evening, a first agreement between the unions and ABI was reached.

Lando Maria Sileoni, General Secretary of FABI, declared: "Thanks to these two agreements, we defeated the arrogance of ABI that unilaterally cancelled the National Collective Agreement.   Now we can go back to negotiations, reactivating the good quality of industrial relations that we reached in the past.