FLORENCE, ITALY – Florence is a tourist town, but most retailers do not agree on Sunday openings. Trade unions protested yesterday: they have demonstrated in major cities across the Country, also in Florence. Even the Catholic Church voiced its support on Sunday as part of a Europe-wide campaign against allowing more businesses to stay open on Sundays.
Susanna Camusso, the leader of Italy’s biggest trade union, CGIL, joined picketers outside a Rome shopping centre and there were similar demonstrations around the Country including street parties in Florence, Milan and Pisa.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti introduced a reform as part of an austerity package passed in December last year that allows businesses to decide their own working hours, including the possibility of 24-hour opening.
Italy’s three main trade unions, CGIL, CISL and UIL, which are already campaigning against government plans to make it easier to fire workers, said in a statement that Sunday openings would lead to “worse economic conditions.”
The mobilisation in Italy was part of the European Day for a Work-Free Sunday, a campaign called by the European Sunday Alliance, a network of trade unions, civil society organisations and religious communities.
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Once the day is initiated, then comes the enforcement. What about those who believe it is important to keep Sabbath as the holy day? What penalties will they have inflicted on them. Leave it open to everyone to sort out their own lives. This “family time” rubbish is a cloak for a religious agenda that won’t stop until the day is enforced on others.
Well said Lisa.
We are definatly living in the last days, prophesy is being revealed right before our eyes. We must have faith and know our bible to get through these troubling times.