General strike to overlap with transport walkouts, followed by airport stoppages on 22 November.Commuters and travellers across Italy face major disruption on 20 and 21 November, when a national general strike called by the CGIL trade union coincides with separate transport stoppages.The general strike on Friday 20 November covers public and private sectors for the whole day, including schools, universities, healthcare, public administration, firefighters and local public transport. The CGIL says it is protesting against the rising cost of living, which it claims the government has failed to address, and criticises budget choices including higher military spending and insufficient funding for health, education and social policy. On top of this, the SGB and CUB Trasporti unions have called a national strike affecting rail freight, local public transport and rail services from 21.00 on 20 November to 21.00 on 21 November. A separate rail strike, called by the PdM/PdBI national assembly and covering Trenitalia, Mercitalia Rail and other group companies, runs for the same hours. In Verona, a further rail strike will take place on 21 November from 09.00 to 17.00.Trenitalia says it will run minimum services. Trains already under way when the strike starts will reach their final destination if it can be reached within an hour; after that, they may stop at earlier stations.Air travel will be affected on Sunday 22 November. Ground handling and airport staff at Florence and Pisa will strike for 24 hours, as will Enav air traffic control workers in Varese. There will also be 24-hour strikes at Milan Malpensa and Venice Marco Polo. We update our news of public transport strikes in Italy regularly. For official information see the transport ministry website. Photo credit: StudioLab Images / Shutterstock.com

Commuters and travellers across Italy face major disruption on 20 and 21 November, when a national general strike called by the CGIL trade union coincides with separate transport stoppages. The general strike on Friday 20 November covers public and private sectors for the whole day, including schools, universities, healthcare, public administration, firefighters and local public transport. The CGIL says it is protesting against the rising cost of living, which it claims the government has failed to address, and criticises budget choices including higher military spending and insufficient funding for health, education and social policy. On top of this, the SGB and CUB Trasporti unions have called a national strike affecting rail freight, local public transport and rail services from 21.00 on 20 November to 21.00 on 21 November. A separate rail strike, called by the PdM/PdBI national assembly and covering Trenitalia, Mercitalia Rail and other group companies, runs for the same hours. In Verona, a further rail strike will take place on 21 November from 09.00 to 17.00.

Trenitalia says it will run . Trains already under way when the strike starts will reach their final destination if it can be reached within an hour; after that, they may stop at earlier stations.

Air travel will be affected on Sunday 22 November. Ground handling and airport staff at Florence and Pisa will strike for 24 hours, as will Enav air traffic control workers in Varese. There will also be 24-hour strikes at Milan Malpensa and Venice Marco Polo. We update our news of public transport strikes in Italy regularly. For official information see the. Photo credit: StudioLab Images / Shutterstock.com