Italy's UIL and CGIL trade unions
reacted angrily on Wednesday after Deputy Premier and Transport
Minister Matteo Salvini issued an injunction limiting the
one-day general strike they have called for Friday, affecting
the transport sector in particular, to four hours.
"We will respond to this act of institutional squadrismo
(fascist thuggery) with a big demonstration," UIL General
Secretary Pierpaolo Bombardieri, told Rtl 102.5 radio, referring
to a protest planned for Friday in Rome's Piazza del Popolo.
Salvini issued the injunction after the country's strike
watchdog said the protest should be rescheduled.
The authority said the stoppage, in protest at the government's
2024 budget bill, did not meet the requirements for a general
strike.
CGIL leader Maurizio Landini said Salvini would not be able to
stop the unions from protesting against the budget.
"On Friday there will be a big day of strikes and mobilization,"
Landini told Rai television.
"Pierpaolo Bombardieri and I will be in Piazza del Popolo in
Rome and then the strikes will continue: on 20 November in
Sicily, on the 24th in the northern regions, on the 27th in
Sardinia, on December 1 in the southern regions.
"I think lots of people will participate.
"They can issue injunctions as much as they like, we will not
stop until we have obtained results".
Landini said Tuesday that the authority's valuation that the
protest did not meet the criteria to be defined a general strike
was mistaken and accused it of being "compliant" with the
government's demands.
He and Bombardieri have both said the right to strike is on the
line.
But the leader of Italy's third big trade-union confederation,
the CISL, which has not signed up to Friday's strike, did not
cry foul about the government's actions.
"The law sets precise constraints to reconcile the
Constitutional right to strike with people's right to use
essential services," said CISL leader Luigi Sbarra.
"It is a question of respecting the rules.
"The exemptions granted for general strikes require full
adhesion of all the most representative representative (union)
organizations and all sectors".
Salvini, meanwhile, continued his attacks on the unions,
singling out Landini for allegedly capricious behaviour.
"The law allows me (to limit the strike)," Salvini told the
assembly of managers' association Federmanager.
"We cannot afford blockades, stoppages and strikes, we need to
move fast and be productive.
"We cannot depend on moods of Landini".
Landini subsequently announced that the transport sector strike
would last for just four hours, from nine in the morning to one
in the afternoon, instead of eight hours, as a sign of
responsibility towards workers who might be sanctioned for
arriving at work late.
Salvini said he was satisfied with the reduction and said that
"good sense has prevailed".
Premier Giorgia Meloni said the injunction had been "shared" by
the rest of the government and that it had no intention of
limiting the right to strike.
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