Italian trade unions call first strike at Milan bourse on June 27

FILE PHOTO: People walk near the Milan stock exchange building, in Milan, Italy November 27, 2023. REUTERS/Claudia Greco/File Photo

ROME (Reuters) -Milan's stock exchange faces its first ever strike action this month by Italian banking sector trade unions who on Monday accused the bourse's owner Euronext of "constant, systematic and overall disinvestment from Italy" and said they feared job cuts.

Trade unions Fabi, First Cisl and Fisac Cgil scheduled their strike for the last two working hours of June 27, followed by other forms of worker protests in the following days.

Euronext - which runs stock markets in Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Milan, Oslo and Paris - completed its acquisition of the Italian stock exchange in April 2021.

The 4.3 billion euro ($4.61 billion) deal has turned Italy into a key revenue engine for the group.

The takeover of Borsa Italiana, previously part of London Stock Exchange Group, has been a sensitive political matter in Italy, mostly due to its ownership of the MTS platform where Rome's 2.4 trillion euro government bonds are traded.

"We want to maintain a decision-making centre in Italy for all strategic functions of the stock exchange, including MTS," Gabriele Poeta Paccati, from the Fisac Cgil, told Reuters.

Unions also fear job losses, he added.

A Fabi representative said separately that unions were demanding a wage hike for members of about 400-600 euros a month. He expected the strike to have some impact on trading.

"Euronext and the Borsa Italiana Group work constructively with trade union representatives to achieve the growth objectives of Italian companies and the group," Euronext said in a statement responding to news of the planned action.

The stock exchange operator said it had over the last year created more than 100 jobs in Italy and invested heavily in training and workers' bonuses.

It said it was confident it would manage to engage in a "constructive dialogue" with unions.

($1 = 0.9333 euros)

(Reporting by Romolo Tosiani and Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by Alvise Armellini, Jan Harvey and Alexander Smith)