500,000 employees in the textiles-fashion, and leather-shoes sectors will on Friday 13 January stop work in a bid to renew their respective collective agreements that came to term on 31 March 2016. The unions are also calling for a national demonstration to be held in Florence to coincide with the closing of the renowned menswear fashion event, ‘Pitti Immagine Uomo’, which attracts several international visitors.
The Filctem Cgil, Femca Cisl and Uiltec unions from both sectors have decided to combine forces and declare an eight-hour general strike as well as a joint national demonstration in a bid to renew the collective agreement for the textile-clothing sector (420,000 workers in more than 47,000 businesses) and the footwear sector (80,000 workers in more than 5,800 businesses). Both sectors, whose employers’ bodies Sistema Moda Italia and Assocalzaturifici are expected to merge this spring into the larger Fashion Federation, have borne the brunt of heavy international competition and according to the unions more than 100,000 jobs have been estimated to be lost over the last five years.
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