euronews/ Employees of an Italian alumunium plant threatened with closure have protested in Rome.
US owners Alcoa will shut the factory in Sardinia at the end of the year.
The company has been trying to sell the facility for months.
One Swiss industrial group is said to be interested, according to Italian ministerial sources.
Protesters want the government to step in and save the factory.
Daniela Piras, UILM union leader, said: "We are waiting for the government to make the decision not to close the plant and tell to us about the offers on the table which they said exist."
Gianpaolo Milia, another worker taking part in Monday's march, said: "Our demand is to let us keep on working at the only aluminium production plant in Italy."
Some 500 hundred Alcoa employees will be laid off when the plant shuts its doors for good. A further 1,000 jobs that depend directly on the facility will also go.
The closure would be a heavy blow for Sardinia, already beset by an unemployment rate of 15 percent.
