The striking workers of the ThyssenKrupp steelworks in Turin marched through the city on Monday to demand safer conditions and to pay tribute to four colleagues killed by a factory fire last week.
About 30,000 people joined the march, including the father of one of the victims, who looked at the gates of the steelworks and yelled: ''You'll pay for this! You'll pay dearly''.
The ThyssenKrupp workers at the head of the procession wept and the crowds on each side of the procession clapped as it moved past shops whose blinds had been pulled down in a show of mourning all across the city.
Shouts of ''Murderers!'' and ''Justice!'' were directed at the German industrial conglomerate, which is accused of failing to keep adequate fire-fighting systems in place at the plant.
But there were also jeers for the leaders of national metalworkers' unions, who were walking at the front of the procession along with two ministers from Romano Prodi's centre-left government and the House Speaker.
''This justifiable anger shows the distance between the institutions and those workers who clock in every morning without knowing whether they're going to come out alive,'' said Italian Communists' Party MP Giovanni Pagliarini, among the marchers.
Thursday's disaster, in Italy's traditional industrial heartland, has triggered a flurry of concern over deaths in the workplace. Solidarity strikes and initiatives were organised in other regions.
In the first nine months of 2007 there have been 774 deaths in the workplace, 114 fewer than in 2006. According to Eurostat, Italy's annual average of 2.5 deaths per 100,000 workers is below the EU average of 2.7.
In the wake of the Turin fire there were calls for tougher regulations but Prodi said this weekend that companies, especially in the construction sector, were often to blame for failing to apply existing rules.
''All companies must be prepared to heed the warnings that come from unions and workers, before it is too late,'' President Giorgio Napolitano said on Monday.
Parliament passed new laws on workplace security - envisaging three-year jail sentences for the worst failures - in August this year but they have yet to be implemented.
Labour Undersecretary Antonio Montagnino said on Monday that unions and employers would receive a draft of the implementation decrees within hours and that they would be asked to discuss them with the government next week.
Local prosecutors are investigating the ThyssenKrupp fire in Turin, which killed four steelworkers and left three in a critical condition, to see what anti-fire equipment was in place and what sort of emergency training workers had.
ThyssenKrupp said in a statement on Sunday night that all safety regulations were respected.
