Coronavirus: Lombardy metalworkers to strike Wednesday, bank unions threaten action

(ANSA) - Rome, March 23 - Lombardy's metalworkers are to strike on Wednesday to ask for more stringent measures for the factories left open, apart from non-essential firms which the government has ordered shut, in the coronavirus emergency, the FIM-CISL union said Monday.
    The decision was taken "so that Lombardy should be considered a region where more restrictive measures are necessary on the activities that are left open", said Secretary-General Marco Bentivogli.
    The strike is set to last eight hours, he said.
   Italy's bank unions on Monday threatened to strike, saying their members were not sufficiently protected from the coronavirus.
"The employees in the sector, among whom have been registered many cases of positivity to the coronavirus, are not operating in conditions of safety," the Fabi, First Cisl, Fisac Cgil, Uilca and Unisin unions wrote to the federation of savings banks Federcasse and the Italian banking association, ABI.
They said staff did not have enough masks, gloves and disinfectant.
Banks are among the essential services the government has left open after closing down all non-essential businesses.