By Alvise Armellini
ROME (Reuters) – Italian unions are mobilising against possible job cuts for local staff at U.S. military bases as part of government downsizing plans spearheaded by President Donald Trump and his billionaire tech mogul ally Elon Musk.
NATO-member Italy hosts four military bases on its territory, employing more than 4,000 Italian civilian personnel such as cooks, waiters, shop clerks and also engineers, architects and mechanics.
“If we don’t get plausible and clear answers, it’s clear that there will be protests and sooner or later also a strike,” Uiltucs trade unionist Angelo Zaccaria said.
Zaccaria, who represents staff at the Aviano air base in northeast Italy, said the site already experienced cuts for local staff before Trump took office in January, with 44 redundancies announced in September.
After negotiations, they were reduced to 30, he said.
Italian staff at several U.S. bases have received – some directly, some forwarded by superiors – an email in which Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) asks federal workers to provide a list of their accomplishments for the week.
Italian employees also had their work credit cards frozen for a month, starting from March 2, and were informed of a hiring freeze, meaning that any of their colleagues who retire would not be replaced.
“Workers are worried,” Roberto Del Savio, a representative of another trade union, Fisascat-Cisl, at the Aviano base, said, adding that “so far, I have not seen any written document” pointing to U.S. disengagement from the site.
“There are elements that make us wonder,” he added, referring to the DOGE emails and the credit card and hiring freezes. (This story has been refiled to say ‘four,’ instead of ‘several,’ in paragraph 6)
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini, editing by Alex Richardson)
