Posted on 07/29/2002 7:20:31 PM PDT by knighthawk
MILAN (Reuters) - A crude bomb has been found outside the Milan headquarters of carmaker Fiat and another has been discovered outside a labour union building near the city, police say.
The devices, neither of which exploded, were found amid renewed concern about terrorism in Italy, where an economist working on controversial labour reforms was shot dead in March.
An employee of a Fiat dealership found the device at the company's headquarters in a Milan suburb, said Marco Rizzo, a colonel with Italy's carabinieri police force.
Rozzo told Reuters a timer appeared to have been set for later on Monday. "We still can't be sure why it didn't go off," he said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the device which comprised a paint tin with a camping gas cylinder inside and a timer attached.
Fiat, Italy's biggest private sector employer, is planning to lay off about 3,000 workers in an effort to curb growing losses at a time of slumping car sales.
In the 1970s Fiat was the subject of a terror campaign waged by radical left-wing group the Red Brigades during which factories were bombed and Fiat managers killed.
The second device was found outside an office of labour union CISL -- the most centrist of Italy's three big trade union groups -- in Monza, a suburb of Milan.
CISL and UIL, the smallest of the main unions, recently signed a deal with the government temporarily suspending Italy's rigid firing laws for small firms that hire workers in a bid to stoke growth. Italy's biggest union CGIL did not sign the deal.
"This kind of action will not stop CISL," said Savino Pezzotta, head of the union. "We will carry on signing agreements when the conditions are right."
Employer's group Confindustria said it was extremely worried by the incident.
"These are criminal acts intended to stoke a climate of social tension which does not exist, neither in the factories nor in the country," it said in a statement.
The killing of economist Marco Biagi - who was involved in drafting the new labour law - in Bologna in March has raised fears that other attacks could follow.
An offshoot of the Red Brigades group, active in Italy during the 1970s and 1980s, claimed responsibility for that attack.
Fiat, along with two local newspapers and a television station, recently received letters and emails threatening union officials and politicians.
Some of the letters were signed in the name of a chapter of the Red Brigades.
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