Workers from two of Italy’s largest trade unions will strike on Thursday to protest against government economic and fiscal policy just days ahead of parliament’s approval of a crucial budget law.
The general strike marks the first big face-off with Mario Draghi, Italy’s prime minister, since the former European Central Bank chief took the helm in February. It highlights the political challenges his government faces in passing crucial structural reforms, including on tax and pensions, to ensure that Italy gets tens of billions of euros from the EU to aid its post-pandemic recovery.
The CGIL and UIL labour unions — which have a combined membership of more than 7.5m people — said the announced budget was “unsatisfactory”. Their main objection is to an envisaged €8bn of tax cuts, which unions say favour higher earners. Retirement rules and labour contracts are other causes of disagreement.