On Monday morning workers from the former Ilva plant at Cornigliano occupied the departures area of Genoa's Cristoforo Colombo airport. Armando Palombo of Fiom said over a megaphone that the airport was "officially occupied." This is not a runway shutdown and not a ruling on the mill. It is a terminal occupation, with delayed flights.

The march left the plant after a 7 a.m. assembly. The immediate cause is a certified email on Friday in which Acciaierie d'Italia's commissioners asked for wider short-time working, citing a lack of steel coils. On Wednesday they had signed a continuity letter in Rome. On Friday night the other paper arrived. Nicola Appice of Fim Cisl said three days outside the prefecture had seemed to secure 35,000 tonnes a month for Genoa.

The airport said access to security checks was temporarily suspended. Later in the morning the workers reopened a passage, because of children and vulnerable passengers. They had first left a corridor, then closed it. There were brief tensions with people waiting at check-in. Several flights, outbound and inbound, were delayed.

A delegation was called to the prefecture. The occupation, they said, holds until the delegates return. Palombo demanded an answer from the government that appointed the commissioners. A slogan is not a law. Liguria's president, Marco Bucci, came to the airport and spoke to the unions.

Bucci said Wednesday's agreement still stands and that Genoa has a programme, accepted by Acciaierie d'Italia, to process third-party coils if Taranto stops. A second Friday letter, to the region and the metropolitan city, asks permission for that work. The plan, he said, exists until a new buyer. He will ask the commissioners to clarify. That is a political intention, not a decree.

Children were at the plant with a banner: "Dad, your fight is my future." An Ericsson solidarity banner also reached Colombo, after 131 job cuts were announced there. ANSA and Repubblica report the same hours and the same names. The Cassation ruling on Taranto is still pending. It is not today's decision.

Until a new deal or a ministry decision, Monday's facts are these: a terminal occupied, security paused then reopened, delayed flights, and a mill still in dispute over steel and short-time pay.

Image: Jmk22, Genoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons; the terminal, not Monday occupation.

Sources consulted: Ex Ilva protest explodes. Workers: Genoa airport is occupied - la Repubblica; Former Ilva workers from Cornigliano occupy Genoa airport - ANSA.