National transport strike disrupts commuting across Italy

(ANSA) - Rome, October 24 - A national transport workers' strike disrupted commuting in major cities across Italy Friday, while protests wound through downtown Rome and packed in Oberdan Square in Trieste.
    "We oppose the Renzi government's budget cuts," said Willy Puglia, head of the USB trade union for Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the northeastern Italian region for which Trieste is the capital.
    "They are destroying what little welfare state that remains in Italy and they are putting at risk what little protection remains in the work world. Today's strike is the beginning of a path that will continue with another strike in mid-November".
    The strike called by the USB trade union and joined by other unions froze a number of mass transit lines in Rome beginning at 8:00am, including the metropolitan train lines Roma-Lido and Roma-Viterbo, while the A and B subway lines remained open. Commuters were forced to walk up stairs at a number of city metro stations due to closure of escalators and elevators for the strike. Trams and buses in Rome may also be affected, but the strike will be suspended for three hours during the commuting rush, from 17:00 to 20:00. Buses left riders stranded in Milan, while Naples subway line 1 was shut down from 9:20 to 17:00. About 30 percent of tram and bus workers in Naples joined the strike.