Workers at a Fiat car plant in Italy have voted to accept changes to working conditions, in a deal that could have widespread implications for industrial relations in the country.

The changes at the Mira-fiori factory in Turin include longer hours, cuts in benefits, and limits on the ability to strike. Fiat's chief executive said the new conditions are crucial to reforming the ailing car maker. The management threatened to invest abroad... if the deal was rejected. The changes were accepted by 54 percent of those who voted in the referendum at the Mira-fiori factory. But the left-wing Fiom has opposed the deal. They said a deciding factor was support from white-collar workers.

FIM Union Secretary General Bruno Vitali said, "This is the first referendum won at Mirafiori in 15 years, and it's an important one. It was important to manage to make way for the industrial plan, and now the chief executive must quickly confirm his investment plan, as quick as he was in threatening to leave."