Transport strike affecting Olympic test event underscores risks facing Milan-Cortina Games

A transport strike during an official test event for the Milan-Cortina Olympics highlighted why organizers are negotiating with trade unions to avoid a similar scenario during next year's Winter Games.

When workers for Azienda Trasporti Milanesi (ATM) walked off their jobs last Friday, Milan's metro, bus and tram system ground to a halt, leaving organizers of a short track speed skating event having to call in emergency buses to transport schoolchildren to the arena in Assago on Milan's outskirts that will also host the sport during the Olympics.

"It was interesting to have a test like that and have to come up with an emergency plan," Milan-Cortina CEO Andrea Varnier told The Associated Press on Tuesday at a Foreign Press Association presentation. "But we're hoping that there's good will between everyone involved during the Games so that there are no strikes."

Strikes by Italy's trade unions regularly cripple transport in the country, often affecting rail and air travel, too. And with six different venue clusters spread over an area of more than 22,000 square kilometres across a wide swath of northern Italy, public transport will be the glue that holds the Milan-Cortina Games together.

"It's essential for making our Games work, so it's fundamental that the transport system really works," Varnier said.

In recent months, thousands of teachers, health care workers, trash collectors and others have walked off their jobs across Italy on Fridays to protest a decline in spending power, persistently low salaries and government policies they say have weakened public services.

Strikes and protests have also disrupted recent editions of Milan Fashion Week, snarling traffic and transfers between venues.

Strikes are generally called