Italy comes to a standstill: the general strike of November 28th blocks transportation, schools, healthcare, and information.

November 28th marks a day of disruption in the country's daily rhythm. It's not just trains and buses that have stopped, but a significant part of Italy: transportation, schools, healthcare, firefighters, students, cinemas, and audiovisual services. And, along with them, journalists. In the background, a contested economic plan, the issue of military spending, and a long list of expired contracts, stagnant wages, precarious employment, and demands for greater investment in public services and the quality of information.

A day of protests against the budget and the high cost of living

The general strike, called by various grassroots unions (CUB, USB, SGB, COBAS, USI-CIT, and others), will involve public and private sector workers from 9:00 PM on November 27th to 9:00 PM on November 28th. This isn't just a symbolic protest: in many cities, it means reduced train service, intermittent local transportation, canceled classes, and postponed medical appointments.

The reasons are many, but they all converge around a few common points: criticism of the 2026 Budget, which they see as biased toward increasing military spending, and denunciation of the progressive defunding of essential public services. The unions are demanding more funding for healthcare, schools, transportation, universities, and public administration; a real increase in wages and pensions capable of offsetting inflation; the stabilization of precarious workers; and a serious industrial policy. The idea of ​​a "People's Budget," an alternative to the government's, frequently recurs in their discourse.

Transport disruptions: trains, buses, metro and planes

For those who need to travel, the strike primarily means disruption to transportation. Staff at Trenitalia, Trenitalia Tper, Trenord, and Italo have joined the strike: trains are at risk for 24 hours, with certain guaranteed hours (from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. and from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.) during which essential services must still be maintained.

Local public transportation is also affected. In Rome, the strike affects the metro, buses, and trams operated by ATAC, as well as peripheral connections: service is guaranteed only during restricted time slots, while during the rest of the day, services are reduced or cancelled. In other major cities—from Naples to Turin, from Bologna to Genoa, and even Venice—buses and surface vehicles are operating irregularly outside of restricted time slots.

The aviation sector is no exception: airport and airline staff are joining the strike, but ENAC (Italian National Aviation Authority) is determining which flights are protected. Flights scheduled between 7:00 AM and 10:00 AM and between 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM, as well as connections to the islands, regional continuity flights, incoming and outgoing intercontinental flights, and certain connections deemed to be of public utility, remain guaranteed. The strike is also having an impact on highways: workers in the sector are on strike from 10:00 PM on November 27th to 10:00 PM on the 28th, with possible delays to highway services.

Schools and universities: between insufficient resources and precariousness

Another hot front is that of schools. Teachers and ATA staff were given the opportunity to strike for the entire day of November 28th, at the request of organizations like Unicobas and other grassroots unions. In practice, this means uncovered classes, reduced hours, suspended classes, or schools operating only partially, depending on the level of participation.

At the heart of the demands is the denunciation of resources deemed too limited for the school system. They call for greater investment in facilities—often old, unsafe, and in need of maintenance—and in staff contracts. Also challenged are the INVALSI tests and the mandatory PCTO (Paths for Transversal Skills and Orientation). The widespread feeling is that the world is struggling, amidst precarious employment and increasing workloads.

Healthcare and firefighters: protests without abandoning emergencies

It's also a delicate day for the healthcare sector. Doctors and other healthcare workers are striking, though their procedures remain in place to ensure urgent and non-deferrable services. Therefore, specialist visits, scheduled tests, and non-urgent activities are particularly at risk, as they may be postponed or canceled.

The demands come from afar: more hiring, better working conditions, stable and adequate funding for the national health service. Public healthcare, the unions explain, has held up in recent years only thanks to the efforts of its staff, but without a change of pace, it risks no longer being able to guarantee free and universal care.

The firefighters, for their part, lay off for four hours, still ensuring emergency response. Administrative and day-to-day staff, however, stood down for the entirety of November 28th. Here too, the issues are chronic: understaffing, insufficient compensation for the responsibilities and risks faced every day.

The squares are full: students, marches and demonstrations

The general strike isn't just about missed shifts and stationary transportation, but also packed streets. In Rome, students from the Coordinamento Studento Autonomo Romano—which brings together historic high schools like Cavour and Mamiani—have called for a student strike with a march and a rally in Piazza della Repubblica. Their words are heavily influenced by the budget figures: billions for military spending versus a public education system that, they say, continues to be underfunded.

The protest also extends beyond national borders: it denounces Italy's complicity in sending weapons to Israel and links the issue of peace to that of social rights, calling for less funding for the arms industry and more investment in "compliant schools, safe classrooms, and guarantees for the future." Other groups, such as Osa and Cambiare Rotta, are also participating in the mobilization.

A MilanoIn addition to the trains at risk, attention is focused on a large city march through the city center, starting from Piazza Oberdan, passing through Corso Buenos Aires and Piazzale Loreto, and arriving in the Lambrate area. For public order reasons, the Lambrate M2 metro station is closed, and several bus and tram lines have been diverted or limited. Simultaneously, the main national demonstration is taking place in Rome's Piazza Montecitorio, where striking workers are symbolically voting on their version of the budget law.

Journalists on strike: a frozen contract and the role of information

This day of protest includes a particularly significant mobilization: that of Italian journalists. Editorial staffs—from newspapers to agencies, including radio, television, and digital platforms—are holding a day of protests against the failure to renew the national collective bargaining agreement between the Italian National Federation of Workers' Unions (FNSI-FIEG), which expired almost ten years ago.

There are numerous reasons. First, a contract that remained in place while everything around it was changing: the publishing market, digital, business models, and the very organization of journalistic work. Meanwhile, editorial staffs were thinned, often through crisis situations, layoffs, and early retirements. At the same time, the use of freelance and temporary collaborators, paid a few euros per piece, often with no real rights and no prospects of employment, has exploded.

Another issue is wages: according to data cited by the industry, over the past ten years, inflation has eroded almost 20% of the purchasing power of salaries, while publishers have offered raises deemed insufficient. The proposal to further reduce salaries for new hires is perceived as a severe blow to the new generations of journalists, accentuating the divide between those who entered the profession earlier and those attempting to enter it today.

For journalists, however, it's not just about paychecks. Their argument is that without decent conditions, without a fair contract, information itself becomes more fragile: underpaid and precarious journalists are more exposed to pressure, blackmail, and conflicts of interest. In other words, the quality of work in newsrooms ends up directly impacting the quality of citizens' right to be informed, the very right that Article 21 of the Constitution considers fundamental.

It is no coincidence that the speech by President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, who in 2023 emphasized that the employment contract is the "first element of journalistic autonomy," is also remembered.

Among the journalists' requests is a very current topic: the relationship with new technologies. The category is asking for a contract that takes into account the new digital professions, the use of Artificial Intelligence in the newsroom, and fair compensation for content shared online. The idea is that innovation cannot simply translate into staff cuts and cost savings, but must be accompanied by clear rules, protections, and the valorization of human labor.

At the same time, unions are calling for investment in young people: no longer "low-cost intellectual labor," but people empowered to build a real career path, with rights, prospects, and adequate wages.

Publishers' response: revenue crisis and need to modernise

On the other hand, the publishers united in Fieg offer a different interpretation of the situation. In their statement, they claim to have made significant investments over the last decade to maintain the quality of information and journalistic employment in a context they describe as "dramatic," with revenues halved. They maintain that layoffs were avoided thanks to industry-specific tools, always agreed upon with the union.

One of the main issues is competition from over-the-top platforms: Google, Meta, and other platforms that leverage editorial content while retaining a large portion of advertising revenue. According to publishers, this has severely eroded the economic sustainability of businesses, forcing them to reassess costs.

Cinema and audiovisual: the #siamoatitolidicoda protest

In parallel with the general strike, another dispute is taking shape in the world of cinema and audiovisual, that of the movement #wearetitledtothesayingCrew, set, production, and post-production workers have called a general strike for November 28 and 29, demanding widespread participation.

Their demands are partly similar to those of other sectors: salaries considered insufficient for the skills required, widespread job insecurity, and a lack of solid protections. However, there are also specific issues: deteriorating safety on sets, public policies deemed detrimental to the sector, and, above all, a national contract for crews that has been waiting for an update for over twenty-five years.

A snapshot of the country: services under pressure, rights to be realigned

Taken together, November 28th isn't just a series of strikes. It's a clear snapshot of a country where many key sectors—education, healthcare, transportation, culture, and information—are demanding not to be sacrificed for public finances, budget constraints, or new military priorities.

The inconveniences for travelers, schoolchildren, and those with scheduled appointments are real and bothersome, but for those on strike, they are the price of an attempt to refocus public services and the rights of those who make them work every day. Journalists remind us that without free and independent information, there is no real democratic control; doctors and nurses that without resources and staff, public healthcare is weakened; teachers and students that without investment, education risks becoming a luxury.