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Oct 28, 2025

Base unions call nationwide general strike for 28 November—transport and public services in the cross-hairs

Base unions call nationwide general strike for 28 November—transport and public services in the cross-hairs
On 28 October the grassroots unions Cobas, ADL, Clap and Sial announced a 24-hour general strike for Friday 28 November that will cover both public and private sectors. Although formally aimed at wage inflation, public-sector hiring and social spending, the strike notice explicitly includes national transport, logistics, border-inspection posts and port services—areas with direct impact on corporate mobility.

If the mobilisation mirrors Cobas’ 3 October action, travellers can expect reduced staffing at airport security lanes, slower immigration counters at land borders with Slovenia and France, and rail cancellations on Trenitalia’s regional network. While law requires a minimum level of “essential transport,” experience shows that high-speed rail and long-haul flights still suffer knock-on delays when ramp or ticket-office personnel walk off the job.

The 28 November date sits uncomfortably close to the US Thanksgiving weekend, when trans-Atlantic traffic surges and many expatriate families schedule home leave. Airline-ops managers have 30 days’ notice to adjust rosters, but global-mobility teams should already be advising travellers to build slack into itineraries, avoid tight domestic connections, and secure alternative ground transport where feasible.

Beyond immediate travel headaches, the strike highlights mounting industrial tension over Italy’s new immigration decrees. Union communiqués link their demands for “libertà di movimento e diritti di cittadinanza” (freedom of movement and citizenship rights) to the government’s plan to tighten automatic ius sanguinis citizenship and fast-track repatriations. Mobility leaders should therefore track how labour-action rhetoric intersects with policy debates, as additional protest cycles could coincide with the February 2026 “click-day” for work-permit quotas, complicating employer filings.
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