A second labor strike is planned for Wednesday at the Navy’s base at Capodichino, union leaders said Monday.
The strikes near the Naples area — the first occurred Friday morning at Gricignano support site — are the culmination of failed or stalled talks with base leaders on a number of issues, union representatives say.
Wednesday’s strike at the Capodichino base — which flanks the city’s international civilian airport — could prove more disruptive. The base houses many of the Navy’s main offices in Naples, and not much parking is available outside of the base.
The base is "informing personnel about the scheduled strike in order for them to plan accordingly," base spokesman Lt. Paul Macapagal said. "[Naval Support Activity] Naples does not have authority outside the base, but we have coordinated with local authorities and rely on their actions for crowd control and traffic flow."
On Friday, protesting Italian workers from various departments at Gricignano formed a human barricade and blocked motorists from accessing the support site’s front and back gates for roughly nine hours. The strike also forced the closure of the commissary, which did not have enough personnel to open for business.
The commissary lost an estimated $55,600 in revenue from Friday’s closure, said Gerri Young, Defense Commissary Agency spokeswoman.
"The store was closed on a day it should have been opened and on and a big shopping day," Young said.
Local employees say many issues over the past few years have gone unresolved. A key issue is they don’t have access to base facilities, particularly the commissary and Navy Exchange, that allow for tax-free shopping, Mariarosaria Corvino, an NEX employee and a representative of Unione Italiana Lavoratori, said before Friday’s strike. She said Italian NATO personnel were allowed to shop at the stores.
Al Spinelli, director of the base Human Resource Office, said Italian law prevents employees from shopping at the stores. He said NATO personnel are in an international status that exempts them from Italian law that bar tax-free shopping.
Also on Saturday, an unspecified number of NEX workers staged an unplanned walkout about 1 p.m., according to Gennaro Di Micco, head of the local chapter of the employee union CISL. He said the walkout came after an Italian employee was denied hours off to care for a sick child. Navy Exchange officials did not immediately respond to questions about the impact of the strike on Friday or about the unannounced walkout by some workers Saturday.
