1965Liquidity problems are the cause of dismissals, wage-reductions and strikes
On the 3rd of May 1965 the agreed payments were complete. "Cava Romana SpA " informed "Lasa Marmo SpA" that the "Ente” would have transferred 95% of the shares and that the shareholders' register had to be updated. In the first years Sonzogno had ensured continuity of work and even recruited new labor forces. Forced by financial difficulties, caused by expensive acquisitions and lack of new orders, he soon shifted these liquidity problems onto the workforce. When, in 1965, Sonzogno could no longer cope with the timely payment of wages, he was forced to lay-off workers and employees. Among them was Peter Sanavio, member of the factory’s inner Union, belonging to the Italian Socialist Party. The workers expressed their disappointment by coming to a strike.
Lasa’s City Council and the whole population joined the workers’ protest. The majority of Italian speaking workers, who came from the Avellino Province, Calabria and Veneto, were forced to leave Lasa. The same was true for some marble production experts, who had moved from St. Ambrogio, close to Verona. All of them returned to their home communities or sought employment as masons or quarry workers, wherever it was needed.
