Italy opposition bloc and unions against Alitalia deal

By Deepa Babington and Alberto Sisto

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's opposition -- leading in opinion polls ahead of April's vote -- said on Tuesday it opposed Alitalia's takeover by Air France-KLM, considered the carrier's last shot at avoiding bankruptcy.

In more bad news for Alitalia, Air France-KLM said it would exclude 6,600 workers or roughly 35 percent of the carrier's work force from the deal, angering its strike-prone unions. Talks between unions and the carriers on Tuesday ended in a stalemate with neither side willing to concede ground.

The Franco-Dutch carrier has said approval from both unions and Italy's next government, which holds a 49.9 percent stake in Alitalia, is essential to completing a deal.

The government, which is trying to stop the sale from falling apart, has pledged to maintain jobs and revenues at the main airport in Milan in the hope of removing another obstacle to the deal -- a $2 billion (99.5 million pound) lawsuit against Alitalia over plans to halve flights there.

But Milan's airports operator SEA said it would not drop the claim, though it was willing to consider an out of court deal.

And all of this came as Alitalia's first meeting with unions since it agreed to the Air France-KLM offer began with scuffles between police and aircraft maintenance workers protesting outside Alitalia's Rome headquarters.

A Reuters witness said police in riot gear, guarding the airline office where the talks were taking place, clashed with a crowd of 300 to 400 workers from a company that does maintenance on Alitalia aircraft.

Air France-KLM CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta, attending the meeting to win unions over, warned them his carrier was not obliged to buy Alitalia. He said plans for Alitalia were "painful" but would allow it to survive.