ROME -- Tens of thousands of Fiat workers kept the heat on Italy's government and its ailing automaker Friday with a mass protest in Turin against the company's plans to slash more than 8,000 jobs.

Unions said 70,000 workers and their supporters marched through the conglomerate's home city, bolstered by a four-hour general strike in Turin called by the country's three biggest trades unions, AFP reported.

The march, which culminated a week of smaller strikes and protests aimed at blocking the controversial job cuts, was designed to increase the pressure on the government and Fiat management to agree modifications to a restructuring plan announced by the company in October.

Most of the cuts will come through a system of one-year layoffs.

Fiat unions have tentatively scheduled another protest in all the automaker's factories next Tuesday, designed to keep the social heat on the government and Fiat management who are scheduled to meet jointly with the trade unions in Rome next Monday evening.

A meeting with Welfare Minister Roberto Maroni is scheduled to follow the government meeting.

Some observers see the meeting with Maroni as a hopeful sign that a compromise might be reached. However, Franco Lotito of the UIL Union told the crowd in Turin, which police numbered at 40,000: "If a move to modify the plan doesn't emerge, the unions won't go to the later meeting with Maroni."

Italy's bishops have weighed in with spiritual help, calling for a day of prayer and fasting in support of the Fiat workers and their families next Friday.

The government and unions want a commitment from Fiat to re-open its Termini Imerese plant in Sicily, likely to be the worst hit by the plan and which has already laid off some workers.

Industry minister Antonio Marzano told reporters in Rome that the government would "close no doors" in its search for a solution to the crisis affecting the country's biggest private-sector employer.

However, he acknowledged it faced two major obstacles, the autonomy of the Fiat board and the EU ban on state aid to enterprises. "On Monday we'll see what solutions exist which will take account of the two limitations within which we can maneuver. The fact is that we are dealing with a firm quoted on the stock exchange, and thus with the right to its autonomy, and the ban on giving aid to a single enterprise."

Sicily's Regional President Salvatore Cuffaro held talks on the future of Termini Imerese with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Rome early Friday, Sicilian officials said.