October 30 strike, government orders transport workers back to work

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport has ordered the conscription of workers as part of the general strike called by Usb for Friday, October 30. The order, signed by Minister Matteo Salvini, requires the postponement to another date of the stoppage affecting air transport, taxis, local public transport, rail, maritime transport, railway contracts and the road traffic and safety sectors. According to the ministerial strike register, the official justification is the proximity to the commemoration of the dead.

Usb is not backing down. The union behind the mobilization has described the order as “a wrong and illegitimate order, which we are disobeying,” confirming the walkout for the original date. The time slots indicated by RaiNews clarify the scope of the strike: in the rail sector the stoppage is scheduled from 9 pm on Thursday, October 29 to 8:59 pm on Friday, October 30, while in air transport the stoppage covers the entire day of the 30th, from 00:00 to 23:59.

Alongside the transport protest is a widespread mobilization across the country: Usb has announced demonstrations in several cities, with RaiNews citing Rome, Milan, Bologna, Turin, Florence, Naples and Palermo as the main gathering points for the marches. The standoff between the government and the union is thus playing out on two parallel levels — the administrative level of the conscription order, aimed at limiting disruption on the day close to November 2, and the political level of the union’s protest, which asserts the right to strike on the chosen date.

The case brings back into the spotlight the tool of worker conscription, provided for by law for essential public services. The specificity of this case lies in Usb’s explicit response, which does not merely contest the decision on its merits but publicly declares its intention not to comply with it, confirming the strike for the original date.

For now, the question remains open as to the practical consequences of a possible failure by workers joining the strike to comply with the conscription order, a matter on which the standoff between the ministry and the union is expected to continue in the coming hours, as the date set for the mobilization approaches.