Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

STRIKES

UPDATE: Is Italy’s general strike on Friday still going ahead?

Italy's transport ministry has cut short a 24-hour nationwide strike planned for Friday, November 17th, but some disruption was still expected.

Published: 14 November 2023 16:34 CET
Updated: 15 November 2023 17:16 CET
Bus in central Rome
Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP

Italy’s transport ministry on Tuesday night ordered a general strike set to affect transport, schools and healthcare on Friday must be cut to four hours, instead of the 24 initially planned

READ ALSO: The transport strikes to expect in Italy in autumn 2023

Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Salvini, who has in recent months cut short several strikes expected to impact transport, wrote on social media late on Tuesday that he had blocked the protest to “protect the rights of 20 million workers, citizens and commuters.”

CGIL leader Maurizio Landini Landini said the right to strike was protected by the constitution and “serves to defend the dignity of working people.”

“Those who will strike are those who keep the country running, pay taxes,” he said, while “Salvini has never worked in his life.”

Union leaders had earlier on Tuesday insisted that the protest, which was called several weeks ago against the government’s 2024 budget bill, would go ahead despite Salvini’s opposition and the strike regulator saying it should be postponed as it did not meet the requirements for a general strike.

READ ALSO: Why are there so many transport strikes in Italy?

Unions had already scaled back the strike following the regulatory body’s decision, saying it would no longer involve air transport and a strike by firefighters would be limited to four hours.

The protest will now last from 9am to 1pm on Friday, however national rail operator Trenitalia warned that train services (local and interregional) may also be affected outside of those hours.

The strike may also impact local public transport (buses, trams and metro trains), taxis, ferry services, freight services and motorways, though a minimum level of ‘essential’ service is guaranteed by law in all cases.

The timing and extent of any disruption to transport services will vary by city and region, and will depend on how many staff decide to strike on the day.

There will be no strikes affecting public transport in Milan, Naples and Bologna, as these cities have all recently held similar strikes at a local level, meaning another strike was not authorised.

Closures had been planned on Friday at schools and post offices in some areas, and whether or not these now go ahead is likely to be decided at a local level.

The strike was also expected to impact the healthcare sector, with members of nursing union Nursind planning to take part.

As in the case of strikes previously blocked by Salvini, some services have already been cancelled ahead of the long-planned protest meaning there may still be some disruption beyond the 9am-1pm strike time.

While strikes in Italy are a frequent occurrence, they are not always disruptive and Italian law protects a minimum number of transport links and other services deemed essential during strikes.

Unions in Italy called a total of 1419 strikes in 2023, many of which were on a local or regional level, according to newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. This was 99 fewer than in 2022.

Keep up with the latest updates in The Local’s strike news section.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

POLITICS

‘Worrying developments’: NGOs warn of growing pressure on Italian media freedom

Media freedom in Italy has come increasingly under pressure since Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government took office, a group of European NGOs warned on Friday following an urgent fact-finding summit.

Published: 17 May 2024 17:40 CEST
‘Worrying developments’: NGOs warn of growing pressure on Italian media freedom

They highlighted among their concerns the continued criminalisation of defamation – a law Meloni herself has used against a high-profile journalist – and the proposed takeover of a major news agency by a right-wing MP.

The two-day mission, led by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), was planned for the autumn but brought forward due to “worrying developments”, Andreas Lamm of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) told a press conference.

The ECPMF’s monitoring project, which records incidents affecting media freedom such as legal action, editorial interference and physical attacks, recorded a spike in Italy’s numbers from 46 in 2022 to 80 in 2023.

There have been 49 so far this year.

Meloni, the leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, took office as head of a hard-right coalition government in October 2022.

A key concern of the NGOs is the increased political influence over the RAI public broadcaster, which triggered a strike by its journalists this month.

READ ALSO: Italy’s press freedom ranking drops amid fears of government ‘censorship’

“We know RAI was always politicised…but now we are at another level,” said Renate Schroeder, director of the Brussels-based EFJ.

The NGO representatives – who will write up a formal report in the coming weeks – recommended the appointment of fully independent directors to RAI, among other measures.

They also raised concerns about the failure of repeated Italian governments to decriminalise defamation, despite calls for reform by the country’s Constitutional Court.

Meloni herself successfully sued journalist Roberto Saviano last year for criticising her attitude to migrants.

“In a European democracy a prime minister does not respond to criticism by legally intimidating writers like Saviano,” said David Diaz-Jogeix of London-based Article 19.

He said that a proposed reform being debated in parliament, which would replace imprisonment with fines of up to 50,000 euros, “does not meet the bare minimum of international and European standards of freedom of expression”.

The experts also warned about the mooted takeover of the AGI news agency by a group owned by a member of parliament with Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party – a proposal that also triggered journalist strikes.

READ ALSO: How much control does Giorgia Meloni’s government have over Italian media?

Beatrice Chioccioli of the International Press Institute said it posed a “significant risk for the editorial independence” of the agency.

The so-called Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) consortium expressed disappointment that no member of Meloni’s coalition responded to requests to meet with them.

They said that, as things stand, Italy is likely to be in breach of a new EU media freedom law, introduced partly because of fears of deteriorating standards in countries such as Hungary and Poland.

Schroeder said next month’s European Parliament elections could be a “turning point”, warning that an increase in power of the far-right across the bloc “will have an influence also on media freedom”.

SHOW COMMENTS