General strike on Friday to last 24 hours after tribunal scraps government injunction
A planned general strike involving healthcare, education and transport services will cover the whole of Friday after Lazio’s regional administrative court (TAR) on Thursday quashed a government injunction limiting the protest to just four hours in the transport sector, Ansa reported.
The tribunal said the ruling stemmed from the absence of “reasons which [...] could support the given injunction”.
The potential disruption caused by the strike doesn’t exceed “the natural impact of this form of abstention from work,” it added.
READ ALSO: KEY POINTS: How will Italy’s general strike affect daily life on Friday?
The tribunal’s decision sparked the ire of Deputy PM and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, who had issued the injunction late on Tuesday.
"We have done everything possible to defend Italians’ right to travel. Citizens can thank a judge of the Lazio TAR for yet another Friday of chaos and disruption," Salvini.
The USB union, which called the strike in October over planned cuts to public expenditure on healthcare, education and social security, expressed satisfaction over TAR’s ruling.
USB executive Francesco Staccioli said the decision “is something we consider simply an act of justice for this country".
The ruling "relieves workers of an illegitimate sanction," he added.
The USB union on Monday had advised Salvini against issuing a strike injunction, saying that it had successfully appealed against a similar ordinance in court last year.
Italian court approves referendum on contested regional autonomy bill
Italy’s highest appeal court on Thursday ruled that a public referendum asking for the full repeal of a contested regional autonomy bill would be legally valid if held, Ansa reported.
The ruling was issued after Italy’s Constitutional Court said last month that it considered some parts of the proposed referendum unlawful.
The regional autonomy bill at the heart of the referendum allows regional authorities to claim broader powers on key public services and retain more of the tax revenue raised in their territories for themselves.
It was passed into law in mid-June amid fierce protests that it would worsen already stark north-south divides in healthcare, education and public services.
Following its introduction, trade unions and opposition parties launched a nationwide campaign against the bill, collecting enough signatures to qualify for a referendum by late August.
But the request to hold a vote over the bill hit a hurdle in mid-November after the Constitutional Court said it wasn’t fully lawful – a ruling overturned by the Court of Cassation on Thursday.
The matter is now set to go back to the Constitutional Court, which is expected to issue a final ruling over the referendum's legal admissibility in January.
Car manufacturer Stellantis to extend production stoppage at Italian plant amid EV slump
Stellantis, the world’s fourth largest car manufacturer, will extend the production stoppage at its Mirafiori plant, Turin, until January 20th, the head of the FIOM-Cgil trade union told Reuters on Thursday.
Stellantis said in late November it would halt auto assembly operations at the plant from December 2nd to January 5th amid “continuing uncertainty in sales of electric cars in several European markets [...] and luxury cars in some non-European countries such as China and the United States".
Operations at the Mirafiori site had already been suspended from mid-September to November 1st due to low demand.
Stellantis' sales in Italy stood at 31,924 vehicles in October – down by 27.8 percent compared to the same month in 2023.
The car manufacturer’s market share also dropped to 25.2 percent from 31.7 percent in October.
Stellantis is the result of the 2021 merger of France's Peugeot-Citroen and Italian-American company Fiat-Chrysler.
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