Ex-Alitalia flight attendants strip off uniforms in protest

ROME (AP) — Dozens of former flight attendants from defunct Italian airline Alitalia have stripped off their uniforms, wearing only undergarments in a protest in central Rome. Long financially ailing, Italy’s decades-old airline flew its last flight on Oct. 14. A new airline, ITA, bought the Alitalia brand but is taking on fewer than 3,000 of Alitalia’s 10,000 employees. Union officials say those who will work for ITA are being hired at lower pay scales. The former flight attendants stood silently on Rome’s Capitoline Hill as they slowly removed uniform jackets, skirts and heels before carefully gathering up their clothes and shouting, “We are Alitalia!”