Italy is not a model of productivity for several reasons. Reducing this problem to the union involvement of workers looks intellectually dishonest to me.
You are FUDding.
I'm an Italian living in Italy, and I 100% agree with the parent comment.
Also, I'd add that most members of Italian national unions are retired people, so unions mostly care about pensions,ending being often in contrast with younger workers interests
(for instance, keeping retirement age low, even if it's one of the lowest in the EU).
One must also consider that there's a strong divide between unionized, older workers with "permanent job" contracts, and younger workers with precarious jobs, whose issues are completely ignored by national unions.