{"id":257361,"date":"2025-03-12T09:52:04","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T09:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/12\/musk-email-reaches-italian-workers-it-did-not-go-well\/"},"modified":"2025-03-12T09:52:04","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T09:52:04","slug":"musk-email-reaches-italian-workers-it-did-not-go-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/12\/musk-email-reaches-italian-workers-it-did-not-go-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Musk Email Reaches Italian Workers. It Did Not Go Well."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/11\/multimedia\/11italy-doge-01-jzhg\/11italy-doge-01-jzhg-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Musk Email Reaches Italian Workers. It Did Not Go Well.\" title=\"Musk Email Reaches Italian Workers. It Did Not Go Well.\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Italian employees at the Aviano Air Base in northern Italy paused from flipping burgers, unloading trucks and restocking shelves recently to open an email from their bosses demanding that they list five key accomplishments from last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The email was a by-now familiar demand from President Trump\u2019s chief cost-cutter, Elon Musk, carrying with it the threat of termination if they did not respond. But on this occasion, it did not land with government employees in the United States, but rather in Italy, a country where workers\u2019 rights are held sacrosanct.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The result set the stage for a puzzling clash of cultures, with the world\u2019s richest man and his job-thrashing chain saw on one side, and one of the world\u2019s most protective champions of the forever job on the other.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe are in Italy here,\u201d said Roberto Del Savio, a union representative and an employee at the base. \u201cThere are precise rules and thank God for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Aviano, an Italian air base that hosts the United States 31st Fighter Wing, employs more than 700 Italian civilian personnel who on a daily basis cook and clean and generally keep the base running.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In all about 4,000 Italian civilian employees work at bases serving about 15,000 American soldiers in Italy, turning each into a sort of a miniature American town where U.S. military personnel can find American food and other familiar items from home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Those jobs, in keeping with longstanding labor traditions in Italy, are fully unionized and protected under Italian labor laws. But at the same time, the employees work for the United States government, which pays their salaries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Labor unions say the email was forwarded from a department head to dozens of Italian civilian employees working in the Aviano base\u2019s Army &amp; Air Force exchange service, which provides goods and services to the U.S. Army. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">No one seemed certain whether it was a one-off misunderstanding or if Mr. Musk was attempting to assert his demands over Italian workers as well as American ones. A Department of Defense official said that while those emails were meant for U.S. employees, local employees \u201ccould receive emails,\u201d too. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The confusion raised questions of whether Mr. Musk could export his brand of unbridled techno-libertarianism to a country that is \u201cfounded on labor\u201d per the first article of its Constitution, or whether his chain-saw would snag on Italy\u2019s notoriously thick bureaucracy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOurs is a system built on democracy, safeguards, and protections provided by contracts that must be respected,\u201d Pierpaolo Bombardieri, the secretary general of Italy\u2019s Uil union said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Bombardieri called the emails \u201cunacceptable\u201d and the method \u201caberrant.\u201d Italy\u2019s unions wrote to the Italian government and the U.S. embassy asking for explanations. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For now, the ground rule appears to be that Italian civilians must answer the email only if they receive it directly from the U.S. government \u2014 not if it is forwarded to them, as happened at Aviano and at least one other base in Italy, in the city of Vicenza. But it remained unclear whether the Department of Defense was going to reach out to Italian workers directly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some German employees of the U.S. government in Germany also received Mr. Musk\u2019s first email asking them to explain their work output, said a senior diplomat in Berlin, who did not want to be named while talking about an ally. (Mr. Musk\u2019s follow-up email appears to have been sent only to American employees in Germany, the diplomat said.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the meantime, some Italian employees had answered the email, said Mr. Del Savio. \u201cOne says I was slicing pizza, another says something else.\u201d he said. \u201cBut we were all very puzzled,\u201d he said. \u201cItaly is not the Wild West like the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Despite recent changes that attempted to make the labor market more flexible, Italy\u2019s labor laws continue to offer broad protections to employees. Especially in the public sector, getting a permanent job is often seen as a guarantee to be unfireable for life.<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Many in Italy value this system as a backbone of the Italian welfare state and its democracy, while others point to it as a rigid and inefficient juggernaut that prevents jobs from being created for young people. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Stories of half-hour long workdays and daylong coffee breaks are something of a legend in Italy. Some have said a touch of Musk-style slash and burn approach would not hurt here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cItaly would also need Musk\u2019s ax,\u201d Nicola Porro, an Italian journalist and right-wing commentator, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nicolaporro.it\/caro-musk-pensaci-tu-taglia-anche-in-italia-i-posti-statali-inutili\/?fbclid=IwY2xjawI9E-1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHQg7fiI2UG5nb1kXiFh0K2IUr4GPos_0MP2c3Ts7caJPrHSgOI9tFYo9xg_aem_X6jDbs-hoGBBRSdIH9gj0w\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">wrote in a blog post<\/a>, decrying Italy\u2019s \u201cuseless positions.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Italians seized upon the juxtaposition. One TikTok creator, Alberico Di Pasquale, made a video <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/vm.tiktok.com\/ZNdehfBFc\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">pretending to show an Italian employee on a permanent contract<\/a> answering Mr. Musk\u2019s email. \u201cNo. 1: I come to work, No. 2: I clock in, No. 3: breakfast,\u201d he said. \u201cNo. 4: tournament with my colleagues to see who will get the coffee; No. 5: I get the coffee. Repeat five times points 4 and 5. No. 6: I go pay my bills and grocery shop; No. 7, I clock out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But while some had fun with the demands from Mr. Musk, for union representatives at the American base in Aviano, and other Italians, it was serious business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As Mr. Trump questions the U.S. commitment to NATO and insists that Europe must defend itself, fears of spending cuts are spreading at U.S. bases abroad. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Amid a 30-day freeze of federal credit cards, the U.S. government last week also froze the credit cards that Italian employees at Aviano used to purchase equipment for the base, then started a hiring freeze, the unions said. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Union workers said they did not know what was going to come next. But they said they were going to fight on. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMusk can do whatever he wants in the United States,\u201d said Emilio Fargnoli, a union representative. \u201cIf they are happy with it, sure,\u201d he added. \u201cNot here.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Jim Tankersley<!-- --> and <!-- -->Jeanna Smialek<!-- --> contributed reporting. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/12\/world\/europe\/musk-email-italy-airbase.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Italian employees at the Aviano Air Base in northern Italy paused from flipping burgers, unloading trucks and restocking shelves recently to open an email from their bosses demanding that they list five key accomplishments from last week. The email was a by-now familiar demand from President Trump\u2019s chief cost-cutter, Elon Musk, carrying with it the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/03\/11\/multimedia\/11italy-doge-01-jzhg\/11italy-doge-01-jzhg-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[185050,163575,2534,27089,51065,119879,3096,3832,156,169677,163573,6039,163751,171452,137131,2621,165909,52,163574,163486,2252,198724],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257361"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257363,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257361\/revisions\/257363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}