Euronext sees business as usual despite historic Milan exchange strike

By Giancarlo Navach

MILAN (Reuters) -Owner Euronext expects business as usual when trade unions at the Milan stock exchange hold an historic strike in the last two hours of the working day on Thursday.

Italian banking sector trade unions last week announced the first ever strike at Borsa Italiana, the Milan exchange, accusing Euronext of "constant, systematic and overall disinvestment from Italy".

Unions held a meeting on Wednesday to finalise their plans which they said was attended by more than half of the exchange staff. There are in total around 700 employees working at the Milan bourse.

"We don't want to harm the country or the companies involved," said Sergio Castoldi from Fabi, one of the unions behind the action.

"We want to send a message to the company that they need to have a dialogue with their workers," he added.

The strike has been called for 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (1330-1530 GMT) but Euronext said it expects minimal disruption.

"Systems are automated and all run on a single Euronext Optiq group trading platform and there are the usual active protocols for any emergency," said a Euronext-Borsa Italiana spokesperson.

Traders too do not expect any impact on the normal market activity.

"The only problem could arise if there is a crash, such as a server going down, a disruption or a technical issue," a trader said.

Unions expect to return to the negotiating table after a meeting which Industry Minister Adolfo Urso has scheduled with them for July 3.

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

(Reporting by Giancarlo Navach; Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by Mark Potter)