ROME, Jan 19: Italy's national carrier, Alitalia, grounded 364 flights on Monday after unions called an eight-hour strike in protest at a plan to slash 1,500 jobs over the next three years and outsource a further 1,200.

Alitalia cancelled 182 domestic flights, 168 to other European countries and 14 further afield, and said a total of 18,000 passengers would be affected.

Check-in clerks at Rome-Fiumicino walked out after one flight left for Budapest and another to Naples and hung "closed" signs over the counters.

Several hundred Alitalia workers left their jobs at the airport, the telephone reservation centre and company offices to attend a union-led demonstration in the rain outside the Italian finance ministry, the major shareholder in the airline with a 62.39-percent stake.

In addition to cutting more than seven percent of its 20,934-strong workforce, Alitalia has told 1,200 staff they and their jobs will be outsourced to sub-contractors.

When the effect on Alitalia and all its subcontractors is added up, the result is 10,000 jobs under threat, according to Roman Catholic union Filt-CISL, one of at least six involved in the demonstration.

"We want the plan withdrawn and discussions to start again from scratch," said Filt-CISL spokesman Stefano Pietrini. "No worker enjoys going on strike and nobody is looking for a fight but when your rights are ignored you have no choice."

After talks to avert the stoppage broke down on Sunday, the management said it would put the plan on ice until January 30 and offered to increase wages to take account of inflation for the past two years. But Pietrini dismissed the gesture. "We have been waiting four years for this," he complained. Negotiations between unions and management are due to resume on Tuesday but staff at the protest were sceptical.

"This story about putting the job cuts plan on hold is a lie," said one striker, who had worked in Alitalia's information technology department for 20 years.

"In our service, some people will perhaps be laid off. Others will be sold to outside companies, which amounts to a delayed laying off." "They only give the names when the redundancy letters go out," he lamented, declining, like most of the protestors questioned, to give his name.

Over the loudspeakers, one striker let loose a hail of invective against managing director Francisco Mengozzi, who is accused of promoting the staff cuts plan.

Other protestors concurred. Many complained of management errors by a company leadership that has failed to plug the deficit hole. Some had placards round their necks offering: "For sale due to failed management."

"The problem is wastage and knowing where the money's going," explained one angry employee who had been with Alitalia for 25 years. He criticised the management's policy of selling off the company bit by bit - one day the on board catering service, the next the maintenance department.

"They shut the spare parts depot at Fuimicino. Now we're forced to buy the parts from other companies and pay cash," he said. "Management talks about a development plan but in reality that means selling activities off," said Chiara, a 26-year-old telephonist.

Chiara, who has been working for six years on a part-time contract of 500 euros a month that is only renewed when the company needs, rued the reasons that made her join Alitalia in the first place.-AFP