Bank employees' nationwide strike Friday

(ANSA) - Milan, January 27 - Over 15,000 bank employees are expected to take to the streets Friday in a nationwide strike after the Italian Banking Association (ABI) rescinded a national collective bargaining contract, union organizers said Tuesday.
    Protests are scheduled in Milan, Palermo, Ravenna, and Rome.
    "ABI's real objective is to dismantle the national collective bargaining contract and its safeguards and to replace it with a firm by firm contract negotiations," the eight promoting unions said in statement.
    "This will produce huge disparities in wages and in the treatment of workers, paving the way for further savage job cuts".
    The banking sector currently employs 300,000 people, with 68,000 jobs lost over the past 15 years, the unions said.