Italy's three main labour unions CGIL, CISL and UIL on Wednesday proclaimed a four hour strike in Florence to protest against a deadly incident at an Eni fuel depot at nearby Calenzano Monday that killed five workers and injured nine others.
The UGL union has also adhered.
Workers at an Eni oil refinery in Livorno staged a strike on Tuesday and will be walking off the job again for two hours on Wednesday as part of the protest.
"It is the umpteenth massacre", said Maurizio Landini, the leader of the largest and most left-leaning union CGIL.
The deadly incident, he said, shows that "this business system is based on insecurity, on the effective lack of procedures that are able to guarantee the health and security of workers".
Another protest has been organized on Wednesday by the USB, Cobas and CUB Firenze unions in front of the offices in Florence of workplace accident insurance agency INAIL.
"It is not possible to say that it was a fatality, the risks of an explosion at the depot were well known", they said.
The Eni depot at Calenzano was listed among plants at risk by the Territorial coordination plan of the metropolitan city of Florence, they said, based on the quantity of dangerous substances present.
The security report was last updated in 2021.
"When it was built at the end of the 1950s, a highway exit had been planned there" and the area "was all countryside", said Tuscany Governor Eugenio Giani, noting that "it was appropriate then, but not today".
Petrol, diesel and kerosene was received and stored at the 170,300- square-metre Calenzano facility and then distributed from it.
The plant is connected to Eni's Livorno refinery via two pipelines. Eni said the facility had been operating since 1956 and had 24 tanks and 10 loading platforms.
The municipality of Calenzano has organized a commemoration ceremony for the victims on Wednesday and has declared it a day of mourning.
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