Italian Unions Strike Over Proposed Labour Reforms

December 12, 2014 Share Print 0

A general strike is disrupting transport across Italy as rallies get under way in more than 50 cities, including the capital Rome.

Trade unions are protesting against the government’s bid to reform labour laws.

They insist the current regulations are necessary to protect workers from being sacked by unscrupulous companies.

But Prime Minister Matteo Renzi says the planned reforms are essential for his government to lift Italy’s economy out of years of stagnation.

He believes employment laws must be loosened to boost the labour market and has made the new legislation the centrepiece of his government’s policies.

Thousands of union members took to the streets on Friday morning from Milan in the north to Palermo in the south.

The general strike shut down basic services like local transport and ports across Italy and left many schools closed.

via BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.