Civil service, education, workers and public transport workers are holding a general strike in Italy on Friday at the call of the two largest trade unions – the Italian General Confederation of Labor (CGIL) and the Italian Labor Union (UIL).
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Unions say the government’s plans to change next year’s budget are completely insufficient to solve the country’s problems and demand increases in the purchasing power of wages and pensions, funding for health care, education, public services and industrial policy.
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Earlier, the Italian Council of Ministers announced budget plans for 2025 worth about 30 billion euros, including cuts in income taxes and social contributions for people with middle and low incomes and a temporary increase in taxes for banks and insurers. The country’s parliament will approve the budget maneuver, which will become part of the state budget for 2025, in December.
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The strike, which involves members of CGIL and UIL, covers all sectors of the economy except the railways. In the airline industry, for example, state-owned Ita announced the cancellation of 68 flights due to a strike by airline staff that will last four hours.
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The Ministry of Transport set the same deadline for a public transport strike, cutting the demands of industry workers in half. As the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported, disruptions in bus service, ferry service and metro service will be observed throughout the country from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. local time. In Rome, in particular, several stations of one of the metro lines are closed due to the strike.
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A demonstration dedicated to the strike takes place in Bologna on Friday morning. As Cgil general secretary Maurizio Landini said, the workers’ union’s goal is to “turn this country inside out, which requires the participation of the entire population.”
“What social revolt means for us is that each of us must not turn away in the face of injustice,” Landini said.
