Flight attendants stripped off in public to protest poor working conditions and low pay.
In the centre of Rome, flight attendants of the company formerly known as Alitalia, now working for ITA Airways, protested as the takeover of their former company left them worse off.
At Campidoglio, a square redesigned by Michelangelo, 50 former flight attendants turned up in their Alitalia uniforms, then stripped to their underwear chanting “We are Alitalia.”
Their protests centred around the takeover of Alitalia by ITA Airways.
A number of flight attendants lost their jobs, and in their underwear they protested about the new contracts awarded to those who had been retained.
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Trade unions said that those who stayed were being paid less.
One ITA Airways flight attendant told CNN that as well as taking a pay cut they had lost seniority and were treated worse at work.
They lost advance warning of where and when they will be working they said.
ITA President Alfredo Altavilla previously called threats of strike action "a thing of national shame."
He claims the airline staff agreed to the current work conditions and reportedly compared their complaints to a driver looking in the rear view mirror.
Altavilla told Il Fatto Quotidiano earlier this month: "Bargaining over contracts is more than finished. They are all on board, and they have signed the contract that we sent them.”
Of Alitalia's 10,500 staff, only 2,800 have been employed by ITA and the new airline has retained 52 of Alitalia's 110 planes, according to Reuters.
Very little has changed for passengers travelling right now though, with even new uniforms not yet rolled out.
