Italy faces further strikes

Last month saw the start of a wave of separate strikes in Italy with walkouts in both newspapers and airlines.

Air transport was severely affected at the start of the month with cabin staff taking action over planned job cuts.

On 10 and 18 June, journalists took strike action to protest against what they saw as political attacks on press freedom.

As Labour Research went to press, strikes were planned for the public sector and general action across the whole economy was being threatened. CGIL, the largest union confederation, plans a two-hour protest against government proposals to introduce more flexibility into employment contracts, and action by all unions on pensions still remains a possibility.