Friday’s strike action has been called for different reasons depending on the various sectors involved.
Workers across several sectors in Italy are set to down tools on Friday 27 March in a wave of industrial action that will cause disruption to public transport in several cities, close schools across the country and silence parts of the national press.
The stoppages, called by a range of different union bodies and covering distinct sectors, reflect a broader mood of discontent over wages, working conditions and the accelerating privatisation of public services.
Public transport
The most disruptive action is expected in Milan, where workers at the ATM transport group will strike for 24 hours on the initiative of the grassroots union Ai Cobas. The service is likely to be most affected between 8.45 and 15.00 and from 18.00 until the end of service.
The protest has been called against the processes of privatisation and outsourcing of services currently managed by the ATM group.
Among the principal demands is the return to direct public management of local transport – including ancillary activities – currently contracted out in Milan and the surrounding area.
The group’s “Milano Next” project has also come under fire, as has a proposal to transform ATM into a special municipal company with direct “in-house” assignment of the entire service across the Metropolitan City, for which free fares are also being proposed.
The action is also rooted in concerns over health and safety issues as well as demands for improved working conditions and pay.
Disruption will not be confined to Milan. In Naples, workers at the EAV transport authority will strike for four hours between 19.00 and 23.00, with the completion of scheduled services during that window depending on the number of workers who choose to join the action.
In Novara, unions have called a stoppage for workers at SUN between 17.30 and 21.30, while an eight-hour strike called by Arriva Italia workers has been called off.
Schools
The education and research sector will come to a halt on 27 March following a general strike proclaimed at national level by SISA (the Independent Union for Schools and the Environment).
The work stoppage will affect all the principal categories within the sector: teachers, head teachers, and administrative, technical and auxiliary (ATA) staff, both permanent and on temporary contracts.
At the heart of the mobilisation lies a demand for a 20 per cent net pay increase to compensate for the loss of purchasing power caused by inflation, and the creation of a single teaching role with equal hours and remuneration from nursery school through to upper secondary.
On the question of precarious employment, immediate permanentisation is being demanded for all vacant posts, including those filled by ATA staff.
Further proposals include the abolition of the competitive examination for head teachers in favour of an internal elective system, the introduction of Arabic, Russian and Chinese in upper secondary schools, the possibility of early retirement from 2026–27 for those with a disability of more than 67 per cent and at least 30 years of service, and a reduction in the cost of teaching specialisation courses (TFA).
The press
The world of journalism will also be affected by Friday’s action. The FNSI (the National Federation of the Italian Press) has called two days of national strike by journalists, set for 27 March and 16 April.
The federation said that “dignity” was the watchword driving Italian journalists to strike, adding that its members’ collective agreement had been expired for 10 years, that wages had been eroded by inflation and had lost 20 per cent of their purchasing power, and that journalists were the only professional category to have waited so long for a renewal.
The federation stressed that both an economic question and an equally pressing issue of the authority and independence of the press were at stake.
The Italian Publishers’ Federation, FIEG, pushed back sharply on the FNSI’s position. Publishers argued that the existing national agreement was anchored to business models that no longer exist and guaranteed privileges no longer sustainable, such as payment for public holidays abolished 50 years ago and automatic salary increments that had, they said, already more than compensated journalists for the effects of inflation.
The FIEG accused the union of refusing to engage with the comprehensive modernisation of the contract – which it described as an essential tool of competitiveness – or with the introduction of more flexible rules to encourage the hiring of young journalists, preferring instead to limit itself to purely financial demands.
Photo credit: Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com
