Emergency Meeting Ends Strike at Italy's Troubled Ilva Plant
01/21/2013 - Italian metal workers called off a strike at Europe's biggest steel plant on Saturday, 19 January 2013 after an emergency meeting between government, unions and company management to save the ILVA factory from closure, Reuters reports.
Italian metal workers called off a strike at Europe's biggest steel plant on Saturday, 19 January 2013 after an emergency meeting between government, unions and company management to save the ILVA factory from closure, Reuters reports.
The battle over the future of ILVA, owned by the Riva Group, has been one of the biggest challenges faced by the government of Prime Minister Mario Monti and a symbol of the struggle to preserve heavy manufacturing in Italy.
Union workers, who earlier stopped two of the plant's steel works and a blast furnace to put pressure on management to ensure the future of the site, said they ended their strike, after the government promised their salaries would continue to be paid.
But the Riva Group later released a statement saying ILVA would only be able "to meet its commitments, starting with the payment of wages" if steel products seized by an Italian court were released, in line with a government order…
