USB Transport Strike

Unione Sindacale di Base in International Bulletin January 2024

A very successful strike, the one proclaimed by USB last December, despite the Meloni government’s heavy climate of intimidation towards the Italian labour movement. On this occasion, it was the Minister of Transport Salvini who took charge of the repression, even before the Ministry of the Interior…

We publish below the two communiqués, the one before and the one immediately after the strike, in which the union speaks directly on this issue.

14 December

Transport Minister Salvini’s statements regarding the fact that those who disobey his order, the fourth in just over two months, pay the fine certainly does not take us by surprise, let alone intimidate us.

The decision to disobey this act is the result of a precise assessment of the illegitimacy of using an instrument that the law grants to either the prefect or the minister only in cases of serious and imminent harm to mobility and in exceptional situations, certainly not to campaign.

This is a very onerous choice given that the fine can be up to 50,000 euros for an organisation that lives off the contributions of its members alone and cannot involve the workers in the sector given the blackmail of fines of up to 1,000 euros per day for each individual worker.

But this is a step we are claiming precisely because it is indispensable in order to be able to challenge the order also in the ordinary courts in addition to the Administrative Court, which often, unfortunately, arrives late if not posthumously.

The only thing we really did not like about Salvini’s statements is that he continues to focus on the union instead of acknowledging the absolute and brutal unwillingness of the employers’ parties who yesterday slammed the door in the minister’s face.

Without a strike, workers are disarmed, poorer and at the mercy of increasingly arrogant bosses; that is why defending it is vital and we certainly cannot be frightened by the fines threatened by Salvini.

16 December

The first data of adhesions to the Local Public Transport strike on Friday 15 tell us that the workers did not let themselves be intimidated by Salvini’s anti-strike order, which reduced the strike to 4 hours.

The reduction is to be thought of as blackmail against the workers, who risk fines of up to one thousand euros if they strike outside the ordinance. In some cases, moreover, the 4 hours imposed by Salvini coincided with the guarantee bands: this is the case, for example, of Modena, where the strike was thus forced into a mere two hours.

But four hours is not enough to claim one’s rights: USB decided to maintain, as a form of political protest against the attacks on the right to strike, the mobilisation of workers for the 24 hours announced, also taking the risk of a heavy sanction and launching a challenge to the Meloni government. All this without involving individual workers to avoid the risk of individual sanctions that would be disastrous even in the face of extremely low wages in the sector.

The union takes on this plan to reiterate that it is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution that is under attack today.

Let us recall how Salvini’s order does not affect 24-hour strikes proclaimed on a territorial or company basis, such as at ANM in Naples and at the regional level in Umbria, where the abstention is proceeding as planned and with large and massive adhesions.

The first available data on adhesions follow.

Rome: Metro A and Metro C closed, significant reductions in Metro B, Roma Lido, Roma Viterbo and Termini Centocelle. Significantly reduced surface service.
Naples: ANM, 24 hour territorial strike, 95% adhesion. The three city funiculars Centrale, Montesanto and Mergellina closed
Bologna and Ferrara: 85% adhesion.
Perugia: 80% adhesion in the morning.
Puglia: adhesion 70%.
Trieste: 50% adhesion
Monfalcone and Isontino: 70% adhesion for extra-urban lines and 90% for urban lines
Venice: 40% adhesion
Turin: 50% adhesion
Milan: 60% adhesion for surface transport, closed Metro line M3