Sciopero! Strike!
 

According to Bologna Today, there's a national strike planned for October 21. Folk with their ear to the ground in Italy will have a better sense than I as to how serious this strike threat is. Please chime in.

http://www.bolognatoday.it/cronaca/s...1-ottobre.html

It's serious. No flights. Trains out from 9 to 5, buses out as determined by each locality, some boats to large islands will run. Sometimes these things get revoked, but right now, there seems little chance.

Thanks, Perche. I still follow a couple of Bologna publications on FB from when I lived there and thought this was worthy to bring to Flyertalker's attention.

Welcome to Italy ... a strike is a regular cultural event! Try to work round it by planning your journeys with plenty of margins and plans B, C and D. Keeping a good sense of humour does help though!

(Travel in my student days was full of unexpected opportunities occasioned by strikes .. and whilst some tested my patience, others were delightful in new company and new places!)

This is different. on the website that lists the country's planned strikes for October there are at least 20 strikes. But these are just individual cities or regions. Sometimes they last for four hours, sometimes 6, 24. And things still run. The trains run during the hours when people need them to get to and from work. In Venice the Coast Guard drives the vaporetti. It's more of an aggravation or inconvenience. A sciopero nazionale is different. It is to, "bloccare il paese," or shut the country down. No flight, no trains to one town or another, etc.

I suspected as much. Sometimes they do get called off or don't get the support they need to get off the ground, but a real sciopero nationale can be a real pain, especially if it happens on a day when you are arriving or leaving. I remember once arriving on a flight to Fiumicino back in the early 80s during a general strike. The plane couldn't land at Fiumicino because it was closed and we ended up at Ciampino, which at that time was smaller than it is today. There was a single lone passport and customs agent who just waved at everyone as they went by. Once outside, there was absolutely no ground transportation. No city busses, no taxis, nothing. Fortunately, a tour bus was dropping off a charter group for their flight and I negotiated with the driver, being the only person out front at that point who spoke Italian, to load his bus with frustrated passengers and take them into the city. Since many did not have any lire on them, I paid the driver and took dollars in exchange, admittedly at an exchange rate which was favorable to me. It worked out ok in the end, but I learned a valuable lesson. Never travel without cash, preferably in the currency of the country. You never know when there is going to be something unexpected where cash becomes a necessity.

Is there any chance that this sciopero nazionale could get rescheduled to the 20th?

We arrive at VCE on 10/20 and I'm just wondering if there's much to be concerned about?

I don't really see the strike impacting us one way or the other, apart from lunch reservations on the isle of Giudecca on 10/21. I'm sure our hotel can arrange transportation though. The Gritti has their own boat. We have no other fixed plans that day.

I'm slightly worried about the possibility of it being pushed ahead one day, as it would turn into an enormous inconvenience and problem if it occurred on our day of arrival. I suppose we should count ourselves lucky that it got scheduled for the 21st.

The day of the strike will never change. A strike can be called off, but the date cannot change. There is a massive demonstration already prepared for Rome on the 21st. For your lunch reservation on the 21st I'd email the Gritti and check if the boat is running. The strike involves public and private transportation. The Gritti has a boat, but I'd check with them because it will probably not operate.

Thanks Perche, I asked the concierge and he wrote back:

"In case of strike, it depends if all of them will do that , will find a taxi boat ."

Which I don't entirely understand but take it to mean that they will figure out a way to accommodate us regardless of the strike. Their Riva boat is running until the 23rd btw; I think they must consider that the start of the cold season since it gets docked until the spring. They typically only offer it for either set or custom tours of the lagoon and islands, so it's not regularly used as a means of private transit but I'm sure they'll take it out if needed. As soon as we arrive, I'll be sure to ask about the strike and find out whether the boat is free for our lunch reservation.

it seems as if they are winging it. What they are saying is that their own water taxi is on strike, and they will try to find you a ride from another taxi boat company. And then they will say, "all of them went on strike, we couldn't help it."

If in your shoes, I would choose between 2 possibilities. If you are not just staying in Venice for 1-2 days, find a place to eat and do things where no transportation is needed. That would include everywhere in Venice, because anywhere you walk around will be magical. You don't have to go to Giudecca.

Or, if you have to go to Giudecca for that particular restaurant that may have some sentimental value that I won't question, I am 95% sure that during the strike there will still be boats back and forth between Venice and Giudecca. Giudeccani children have to go to and from school, and so the vaporetti will run during the most important periods, despite the strike.

The strickers are trying to get the federal government to give them more money for job creation. They do not want to push the average citizen to be against them, so every strike has some exceptions to not affect the locals too much.

There will be some boat service between The Giudecca and Venice. Strikes do not leave people having to sleep under a bridge. So, despite the strike, I am sure you can still go back and forth to the Giuedecca a few times a day.

However, if I were you I'd just stay in Venice that day. That is because although there must be service to Giudecca, it might only be to accomododate workers hours, and you will have long waits.

The response Gritti gave you, if your post is accurate, is that their private boat won't operate, and they will try to find somebody else. Then, they will say that nobody else was available due to the strike. They didn't want to say no, and make you cancel.

??? Isn't the sciopero generale of October 21st just the postponement of the one originally scheduled on September 23rd?

Differimento sciopero generale del 23 settembre al 21 ottobre

Yes. A strike can be canceled, but they will not be able to willy-nilly change the date of a national strike from the 21st to the 20th. There is too much planning that goes into a nationwide strike. It may not happen on October 21st, but it definitely will not happen on October 20th, or any other time in October if it is canceled or postponed. They have to line up the mayor of practically every city in Italy to have nationwide strike.

And today there was also strike at my post office.

I know it's complicated, but as a general rule of thumb in these cases try to find out if all the unions are involved.

In this case only a minor one (UBS) was, while the major unions (CGIL, CISL, UIL) had called themselves out of it.

I flew back to Milan on the day of the strike and everything was business as usual, possibly better than usual because my flight landed early, luggage arrived quickly and there were three no. 73 buses to city centre waiting outside.

USB is a major union. 1.4 million workers went on strike. Not only schools were closed, even the fire departments across most of Italy were closed. You were lucky. They usually try to get workers to and from work, as it is a workers union so ther are usually some trains and buses around workers' hours, but 60% of flights that day were canceled, as well as most bus services. I think you were pretty lucky.

I think it's a geo factor more than luck :)
UBS has little pull here up North, their strong base is in Central Italy. Here it is CGIL that calls the shots.

If this took place on the 20th, nobody informed anyone in Venice! It was business as usual in the city. Too bad the jerkoffs selling those neon blue flashing helicopters in Piazza S.Marco don't go on strike!

According to the papers it seems as if the strike reached most places, north and south, with Milan and Naples being the two least affected cities. The strike mainly affected transportation, so if you were already where you needed to be it wouldn't necessarily be noticed.

Reading the papers:
1. Rome was in chaos, with historic traffic jams. In Milan and Naples there were disruptions due to marching protestors that blocked parts of downtown transportation, but the trains and funiculars still ran pretty normally for most of the day.

2. Torino had a 30-60% reduction in services for part of the day, with transportation described as semi-regular. Even during a strike in Italy, transportation still goes on during the parts of the day when people need to come and go to work.

4. In the northeast, Friulia-Venezia-Giulia was significantly affected, especially Trieste and Udine as was Genoa in the northwest.

5. Although it was mainly about transportation, schools and many public services such as fire departments, post offices, and garbage collection were shut down across many parts of the country. Even many cemeteries were closed, so there was no place to bury the dead.

6. Venice and Treviso put out bulletins not to go to the airport until you checked with you airline to see if the flight was canceled. The airports at both of these cities were described as calamitous due to lack of porters and other services, but in the end there were some flight delays but not many cancelations.

7. Bologna got hit hard. Emilia-Romagna, and Bologna in particular, are very susceptible to workers' strikes as they were ruled by communists for decades after WWII, and just left communism fairly recently. Along with Tuscany, Umbria and Le Marche, it formed the "Red Quadrilateral" of Italian communism until the early 1990's.

8. Venice was without vaporetti for a portion of the day. This is always significant to elderly Venetians because having to go up and down a bridge every 20-40 yards to get anywhere is not something that elderly people can easily do, especially carrying groceries, so they depend on the water buses.

No doubt, it could have been worse. This article lists the effects on many cities.
http://www.today.it/cronaca/sciopero...016-orari.html
http://www.veneziatoday.it/cronaca/s...obre-2016.html

In case anyone is in Rome this Thursday, a friend here just mentioned there will be a transportation strike. Back in the apartment I looked it up, and it is true.
http://www.romatoday.it/cronaca/scio...glio-2017.html

A strike every two weeks or so in Rome makes the train system much more reliable than the train system in the New York region, where delays, derailments, shutdowns, are much more common.
http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2017/0...ellations.html

Usually, you can figure out why they are going on strike. I cannot figure this one out. What I've heard is that they are going on strike to protest that a few people in the government questioned their right to strike.

There is almost always a, "fascia di garanzia," or a time when the strike is suspended so that people can get to and from work. After all, a strike is usually just to inconvenience people, not to make them mad.

Sciopero Roma | 20 luglio 2017 | Orari | Metro bus a rischio
„Nel dettaglio il primo stop, che durerà tutta la giornata, avrà le fasce di garanzie tra le 5.30 e le 8.30 e tra le 17 e le 20. Negli altri orari metro, ferrovie concesse, bus e tram sono a rischio. “
In other words, everything will work between 5:30AM and 8:30AM, and between 5PM and 8PM. If you are affected, just plan around those times.

As predicted. I am going out for a gelato night cap and just checked one of the USA newspapers. Every day there has been a headline like this, all summer long.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...lery-1.3332600
Give me the reliability of the Italian train system with its occasional strikes, but with fascia di garanzia. It's much more reliable than traveling to NYC.

:rolleyes:

I'll take the bait.

NYC's problems tend to hit one train or subway line. Doesn't a strike shut down (or slow down) the entire system?

It's never one train or line. In July there were 70,000 train delays in NYC. When a line goes down, every train line that crosses or follows on those tracks cannot get through. When Penn Station goes down, it's felt to the most eastern parts of Long Island, up to Connecticut, and down to New Jersey. Last Thursday in Rome there was a four hour strike. Big deal, compared to traveling in NYC. Unlike the USA, in Italy the drivers strike and have coffee, then start up again. In the USA it is derailments, fires, and other disasters from an aging, broken down system that keeps breaking down.

Just go into Penn Station or the subway in Times Square. It's like La Guardia airport. To call it third world is an insult to the third world. Go to the subway in Naples, or Torino, and the difference between modern transportation and transportation in the USA will leave you stunned. You just need to read the headlines. Every day the trains are broken because they derail, they go on spontaneous fire, the overhead wires collapse and fall on them. Once a month or so there is a strike in Italy, and even during the strike, there are periods of time where the trains run normally. In NYC, you cannot count on the trains.
http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires...icle-1.3338044
http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires...icle-1.3345581
http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires...icle-1.3337066
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...icle-1.3336638
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.3335142
http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires...icle-1.3332638
http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires...icle-1.3329104

Simply +1

I completely agree with you that NYC's aging infrastructure is horrific compared to what a modern system can be. However, it's not quite true that you can't count on the trains. Many people do every day, and the number of disruptions is still low compared to the number of successful trips.

Now, if you give me a modern transit system WITHOUT the constant strikes, I'll take that over NYC, Naples and Torino...