The Aviano Air Force Employees in Northern Italy stop the burger overturning, a truck unloading and renewing the shelf to open the E -hinders from their bosses, asking them to list five key achievements from last week.
The e-mail was a well-known request of the main decay of the cost of President Trump, Elona Musk, carrying with him a threat of breaking if they did not answer. But on this occasion, he did not land with government employees in the United States, but in Italy, a country where workers’ rights are held Sakrozart.
The result set a stage for the confusing conflict of cultures, with the richest man in the world and his chain who threw the job he saw on the one hand, and one of the world’s most demanding champions forever work on the other.
“We are here in Italy,” said Roberto Del Savio, a union representative and an employee in the base. “There are precise rules and thank God for that.”
Aviano, an Italian air base hosting the combat wing of the United States, employs more than 700 Italian civilian staff that cook and generally maintain a base daily.
In all about 4,000 Italian civilian employees, it works in bases that serve about 15,000 US soldiers in Italy, turning each into a kind of miniature American city where US military staff can find American food and other famous cases from home.
These jobs, in accordance with long -standing work traditions in Italy, are fully associated and protected under the Italian Labor Laws. But at the same time, employees work for the government of the United States, which pays their salaries.
Trade unions say that E -is forwarded from the Department of Dozens of Italian Civilian Employees who worked at the Air Force Exchange Bail, Aviano, which provides goods and services to the US army.
No one seemed sure if it was a one -off misunderstanding or whether Mr. Musk was trying to determine his demands over Italian workers as well as American. An official of the Ministry of Defense said that although these e -boards are intended for US employees, local employees “can” receive E -staircase “.
The confusion asked the questions of Mr. Musk to perform his brand of unrestrained techno-libertarianism into a country that was “based on work” according to the first article of his Constitution or whether his chain saw would be stabbed in Italian notoriously dense bureaucracy.
“Our system is built on democracy, protective measures and protection provided by contracts that must be respected,” Pierpaolo Bombardier, Secretary General of Italy Uil Union, said in a statement.
Mr. Bombardieri called the E -a “unacceptable” and the method “alphabet”. The Italian unions wrote the Italian government and the US Embassy seeking explanations.
For now, it seems that the fundamental rule is that Italian civilians must only respond to the E -Kost if he receives it directly from the US government – not if they are forwarded to them, as happened in Avian and at least another base in Italy, in Vicenza. But it remained unclear whether the Ministry of Defense would directly contact Italian workers.
Some German employees of the US Government in Germany also received the first e -Mr. Musk, asking them to explain his work, said the senior diplomat in Berlin, who did not want to be appointed while talking about the ally. (It seems that Mr. Musk’s subsequent email was only sent to US employees in Germany, the diplomat said.)
In the meantime, some Italian employees responded to the E -habit, said Mr. Del Savio. “One says I cut pizza, the other says something else.” he said. “But we were all very confused,” he said. “Italy is not Wild West like USA”
Despite the recent changes that have tried to make the labor market more flexible, the Italian Labor Laws continue to offer broad protection to employees. Especially in the public sector, getting a permanent job is often considered a guarantee that it will be unsalted for life.
Many in Italy appreciate this system as the backbone of the Italian state of well -being and its democracy, while others indicate it as a rigid and inefficient driving that prevents jobs for young people.
The stories of half -hour long days and daily coffee breaks are something of a legend in Italy. Some said that the touch of musk style and access to combustion would not be harmed here.
“Italy should also have a men’s ax,” Nicola Porro, an Italian journalist and right -wing commentator, wrote in a blog postdeciphering “useless positions of Italy”.
The Italians seized the opposite. One creator of Tictoka, Alberico di Pasquale, recorded a video pretending to show an Italian employee on a permanent contract Responding to the e -Ard of Mr. Musk. “No. 1: I’m coming to work, No. 2: I’m included in, No. 3: Breakfast,” he said. “No. 4: Tournament with my colleagues to see who will drink coffee; No
But while some had fun with Mr. Musk’s demands, for representatives of the Union at the US Base in Avian and other Italians, it was a serious job.
While Mr. Trump calls into question the American dedication of NATO -Ui insists that Europe has to defend himself, fears of reducing consumption spread to American bases abroad.
In the midst of the 30-day freezing of federal credit cards, the US government also frozen credit cards last week that Italian employees in Aviana bought the base equipment and then started freezing employment, unions said.
Union workers said they did not know what to come next. But they said they would fight.
“Musk can do whatever he wants in the United States,” said Emilio Fargnoli, a union representative. “If they are satisfied with that, certainly,” he added. “Not here.”
Jim Tankersley and Jeanna Smialek contribute to reporting.
