Transport strike
The biggest transport strike in 25 years paralysed Italy last Friday.
Airports, railways and metro stations and ferries ground to a halt in the eight-hour strike. Motorway toll booth operators joined in the action as did cable car workers and even funeral hearse drivers!
The transport strikes (called by Cgil, Cisl and Uil union federations, which together have some 12 million members), came after three weeks of talks between the unions and the Romano Prodi coalition government collapsed.
The trade unions have demanded an increase in public funding in transport services in the government's 2008 budget but this has been rejected by the 'communist' (PdCI) transport minister Alessandro Bianchi.
The government is instead bowing to pressure from Italy's capitalist class which insists that public expenditure is reined-in to reduce the budget deficit.
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In The Socialist 6 December 2007:
System change not climate change
Feature: The free market brings fire, flood and famine
Workplace news and analysis
Socialists and the trade union leaderships
What we think
Education
Compulsory school to 18 - a rosy future for young people?
International socialist news and analysis
Chavez referendum result a big setback
Annapolis - a framework for further conflict
Kosova: After the elections - before the explosion
Northern Ireland classroom assistants
Argos strike in southern Ireland
South African miners strike over safety
Socialist Party review
The socialist review: 'Taking Liberties'
Post Office and CWU
Keep the 'people's Post Office' public
Workplace news
Unison's right wing still witch-hunting
Manchester's striking mental health workers: Defending trade union rights
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