Italian workers stage general strike over austerity

Fascist prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s latest budget cut spending on schools, healthcare and other services

CGIL union federation members on the march during the Italian general strike

By Judy Cox
Friday 29 November 2024   

SOCIALIST WORKER Issue

Thousands of workers took part in a general strike in Italy on Friday. It forced the Italian national airline company to cancel dozens of domestic and international flights and closed schools, hospitals and local transport systems.

Thousands of teachers, healthcare workers, rubbish collectors and others walked off their jobs across Italy. They took to the streets to protest against a cost of living crisis, low salaries and cuts in public services.

Italian unions called the eight-hour strike and mobilised marches in cities across the country. The strike was ignited by fascist prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s latest budget, which cut spending on schools, healthcare and other services.

Strikers are also demanding a fairer share of profits from private companies.

“These protests don’t just speak to the government,” Maurizio Landini, head of the CGIL trade union federation, told reporters in Bologna. “They speak also to entrepreneurs, managers and businesses, who in these years have made profits like never before.”

Transport minister Matteo Salvini imposed an injunction limiting the strike in the transport sector to four hours.

It was the first general strike since last November. Unions faced possible sanctions for involving the healthcare and justice sectors.

Italy’s healthcare sector has been suffering staffing shortages, with care in the poorer south particularly lagging that in the more prosperous north.

“There are many people who go abroad because the salaries are too low,” said Anna Salsa, a member of the UIL healthcare union, at the demonstration in Rome. “We are forced to do double shifts to give the minimal levels of essential care.”

This strike is part of the resistance to Meloni’s government and its attempts to impose greater austerity on Italian workers.