Alitalia negotiations 'must be wrapped up next week'

Minister says talks with unions, banks mustn't drag on

(ANSA) - Rome, July 2 - Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said Wednesday that all the negotiations related to Etihad's plan to buy a 49% stake in Alitalia must be completed by the end of next week. The government and Alitalia are in talks with Italian unions and banks over the conditions attached to the deal, including around 2,250 redundancies. The deal also requires restructuring Alitalia's debt, reported to be over 800 million euros. After meeting unions on Wednesday, Lupi said negotiations with all interested parties, including trade unions, the airline, creditor banks and stakeholders, must not run beyond the end of next week.

The unions so far have shown little inclination of accepting the job losses, even though they have been warned the issue is a deal-breaker. "There is no take it or leave it when the future of thousands of people are on the line," said Susanna Camusso, the head of Italy's biggest trade union confederation, the leftwing CGIL, on her way into Wednesday's talks. "It's necessary to build prospects for Alitalia and the workers". Gian Maria Gros Pietro, the chairman of the management board of Intesa Sanpaolo, which is a creditor to Alitalia as well as its biggest shareholder with a stake of around 20%, said Wednesday that it was not prepared to invest in Alitalia if trade unions do not give their full support to Etihad's business plan. "We have made our participation in the financing conditional on all problems posed by Etihad being resolved, starting with the agreement with the unions," Gros Pietro said.