Italy concluded yesterday the first day of a series of strikes, divided by sectors and regions, to protest against the Budgets of the Government of the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, and which have led to a confrontation between the Executive and the unions over the data of participation and the limitation of unemployment hours. One of the images left by the day of the general strike, the first that Meloni faced, were the more than 60,000 people who gathered in Piazza del Popolo, in Rome, a protest action that had replicas in many Italian cities. .
According to the two majority unions that called the meeting, the CGIL and UIL, membership has been more than 70%, mainly in the center of the country, which concentrated most of the calls, although the Government, for its part, celebrated the "little participation " of the protest.
For its part, CSIL, one of the main Italian trade union organizations and of Christian Democrat origin, did not join the protest.
"Matteo Salvini expressed his great satisfaction with the number of participants in the strike, with little participation from the transport sector," the office of the Minister of Transport and vice president of the Italian Government indicated in a note.
For the unions, the call was especially followed in the transport sector, where there were peaks of adhesion of 100% in some sectors such as ports and up to 80% in logistics while in suburban public transport and rail, while that the average adhesion was also 70%.
These data contrast with those provided by the Ministry of Transport, which assured that there was regular traffic on the local network and around 5% adhesion to the strike, in addition to no cancellations on the high-speed network.
Throughout the week, unions accused the Government of preventing the right to strike after Salvini forced a limit to the strike from eight to four hours in the transport sector, claiming that it was to protect citizens.
"We cannot and we do not want to stop until we obtain results. We are striking because we do not want the country to collapse because of the Government. We defend the country and we will challenge the limitations in the appropriate venues," protested the general secretary of the CGIL, Maurizio Landini, from the rally box in the central Piazza del Popolo in Rome.
With the motto of "Enough is enough!", the CGIL and the UIL called the strike to ask "to increase salaries, expand rights and counteract a budget law that does not stop the dramatic impoverishment of workers, retirees and pensioners and does not offer a future to young people."
Although instead of making a general stoppage, they designed a series of protests over several days spread across different regions of the country.
The call affected mainly the central regions, while on November 20 it will be in Sicily, on the 27th it will be Sardinia's turn and on November 24 the 8-hour strike or full shift will affect all workers in the northern regions. .
In addition, officials and employees of transport, education, research and courier services were also called upon to stop their activity at the national level.
The union centers organized nearly 100 demonstrations throughout the country, to which students also joined, in several cities such as Florence, Milan or Rome, where some 60,000 people gathered, according to the organizers.
"We want to give Italy a future, which passes through the future of young people, which in turn passes through decent work. The government should address this issue," added Landini.
Meloni, for his part, practically ignored the call and scheduled a trip to Croatia during the strike.
"I can say little because the general strike against the Budget was called in the summer, when I had not even thought about it," he declared to the press after assuring that he had "great respect for workers' rights."
The Government approved a Budget for next year with measures worth around 24,000 million euros that contemplate cuts in labor taxes, but for the unions they are not enough to solve the problems of citizens when prices continue to rise.
