Strike in the airports, a thousand flights at risk. The Tar: no to the appeal on pre-registered trains

Except for the hypothesis of last-minute orders, which was pending until yesterday evening, today the strike by airport staff and some airlines puts more than a thousand national and international flights at risk in Italy and threatens inconvenience for all other air transport users. According to an estimate by ItaliaRimborso (which offers assistance to those who encounter flight problems), there are more than 270,000 Italian travelers at risk of being affected.

The other day the Minister of Transport, Matteo Salvini, had halved the hours of the train strike with the injunction, and yesterday he received the support of the Lazio TAR which rejected the appeal of the Filt CGIL, without (obviously) denying the right guaranteed by the Constitution. In terms of law, the union would like to point out that «the Tar did not reject our appeal but decided it could not grant the suspension, because the injunction was in an advanced state of execution. The evaluation of the merits is postponed to 4 September”.

On the other hand, according to the interpretation of the Codacons consumer association «the Court sanctioned the principle according to which users must be guaranteed continuity of service. The decision marks an important precedent and opens the door to the government resorting to injunction in all those cases in which the unions proclaim transport strikes during the period of Italian departures, causing abnormal and unjust damage to the citizens. Moreover, the president of Codacons, Carlo Rienzi, added that “now it would be appropriate to precept employers too, to force them to negotiate with the unions and oblige them to conclude collective agreements”, and the secretary general of the Cisl, Luigi Sbarra: «The only precept that we expect from the government is that of forcing companies to renew contracts. For six years, the right to contract in the handling of airport services has continued to be denied» (with handling we mean the set of services performed at the airport to provide assistance to people and airlines).

If Salvini does not resort to the injunction (yesterday the minister limited himself to saying: “I count on everyone’s common sense”), today the staff of the airports belonging to the Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl, Uiltrasporti and Ugl unions will go on strike from 10 to 18, the same will be done by the pilots and flight attendants of the Vueling airline, and from 12 to 16 by those of Malta Air, who work on behalf of Ryanair. Other companies, although not directly involved, are putting their hands forward: due to the strike by airport staff, Ita Airways is blocking 133 flights today and Wizz Air warns that an unspecified number of its connections are at risk. Without expressing themselves directly, other companies may find themselves in the need to cancel or delay flights. In addition to this, it is easy to imagine that at 18.01 in the airports everything will not start working perfectly again and that traffic problems will continue for the rest of the day.

The president of Federalberghi Rome, Giuseppe Roscioli, calls for more frequent use of the injunction against strikes in transport: «There has been a national strike in the railway sector and an air strike is planned. The hotel operators are also paying the price. These are situations to be avoided with an activity of greater injunction».

Another blow to the Italian air transport system could come in a few days due to the aftermath of an eight-day strike called by 950 employees at London’s Gatwick airport. Workers are demanding pay rises to counter the effect of inflation. The first four days of stop will start on July 28 and others on August 4; they will affect all workers in the facility, from baggage handlers to check-in handlers. Among the airlines that will be more heavily involved (also on routes to and from Italy) are British Airways, EasyJet and Ryanair.