ROME - The leader of Italy's largest union is threatening a general strike against an austerity package approved by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government to balance the budget by 2013 and avoid financial collapse.
Susanna Camusso, leader of the CGIL labour confederation, says a strike is the only way to "change the inequity of this package."
She told the La Repubblica newspaper on Sunday that union officials will meet Aug. 23 to set a strike date.
Berlusconi says the euro45.5 billion (US$64.8 billion) austerity package -- which raises taxes, cuts political jobs and consolidates small towns -- has won praise from the European Central Bank and leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
But opposition is emerging from his own coalition, and the head of an entrepreneurs' association has also criticized parts of it.
