The Italian trade unions Cgil and Uil have confirmed the announcement for Friday 17 November of a general strike against the Meloni government’s draft state budget.

This is essentially a response to today’s decision of the “public guarantee committee”, which called on the two unions to redefine their mobilization, mainly due to the fact that it does not concern all professional branches and regions of the country to the same extent.

The “committee of guarantee” is made up of constitutionalists and labor experts, who are chosen by the presidents of the Italian parliament and senate. Its competence is to ascertain whether in every strike action there are guarantees for the safeguarding of basic individual rights, as defined by the country’s Constitution.

“Employees, by striking, lose money. They decided to do it to help improve our country and we will defend, in every way, the right to strike”, underlined the secretary of the Cgil union, Maurizio Ladini.

The two Italian unions have so far appeared willing to limit the strike action, only in the aviation sectors and with regard to the operation of the Fire Service.

The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Matteo Salvini, said tonight that “his aim is not to create problems for millions of Italians who travel by public transport” and that “if necessary, he will sign a decision so that this sector is not paralyzed for an entire 24 hours” .