Over 70% participated in general strike - CGIL, UIL

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 29 - Over 70% of workers in the public and private sectors participated in a general strike on Friday, said the CGIL and UIL labour unions that organized the protest against the 2025 budget.
    The two unions said participation was "extremely high already during the first work shifts: more than 70% of workers went on strike across Italy" in a mobilization to increase salaries and pensions, finance healthcare, education and public services and invest in industrial policies.
    CGIL, Italy's biggest and most leftwing union, and the third biggest and former Socialist union, UIL, said some factories in Italy ground to halt after all employees walked off the job, including Heineken in Taranto, Sammontana in Florence, Citterio in Parma, Lagostina in Novara and Dana in Reggio Emilia.
    They said participation was extremely high in all sectors with peaks of 85% at Ferrarelle in Valle Camonica; 80% at Siemens in Trento and Leonardo in Pomigliano d'Arco; 98% at Lamborghini in Bologna; 90% at Ikea in Genoa and Pirelli in Settimo Torinese and 95% at Isab in Siracusa, among others.
    Many schools remained closed across Italy.
    A total of 43 demonstrations were organized in major cities with over 50,000 taking part in a rally in Bologna attended by CGIL leader Maurizio Landini and over 30,000 at the Naples protest attended by UIL chief Pierpaolo Bombardieri.
    Overall, more than half a million people took to the streets in Italy to protest against the 2025 budget bill, Landini said.
    (ANSA).