Summer Problems with Services

I was reading that there are some major problems in quite a few spots due to wildcat strikes and slowdowns. Has anyone who has been in Rome, Naples, or Pompeii seen this or have heard anything else about potential problems?

We are not travelling by train but flying in to FCO but hate when there is strife in the city that we are visiting.

I was reading that there are some major problems in quite a few spots due to wildcat strikes and slowdowns. Has anyone who has been in Rome, Naples, or Pompeii seen this or have heard anything else about potential problems?

 

We are not travelling by train but flying in to FCO but hate when there is strife in the city that we are visiting.

Where are you reading this? I'm not hearing it so far, and normally, Italians are not known for wildcat strikes. Maybe I'm missing something?

This was on the home page of my ISP under International News.

I agree about the strikes. They usually announce them before hand.

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ROME (AP) — Italy's summer of woe got worse Friday with one strike at Pompeii that left lines of tourists baking in the sun outside the World Heritage archaeological site and another at Alitalia that left passengers scrambling to rebook cancelled flights.

The slowdowns added to record-high temperatures and labor slowdowns that have made living in and visiting Italy particularly unpleasant this summer.

Rome's transit problems got so bad that Mayor Ig****o Marino fired the leadership of the ATAC public transport company and issued a public apology for the "unacceptable problems" that have bedeviled the capital in recent weeks.

Those included transport employees showing up for work but barely doing their jobs — so-called "white strikes" that have enraged residents trying to get to and from work.

Separately, Alitalia cancelled 15 percent of its flights Friday because of a walkout by pilots and flight attendants.

Further south, hundreds of tourists lined up for hours in the sun Friday outside the gates of Pompeii, near Naples, after unions called a wildcat strike and kept the archaeological park closed for several hours.

Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said the Pompeii closure caused "incalculable damage" — both to Pompeii and to the image of the country.

Much of Italy has also been baking under a relentless heat wave for over two weeks, with average temperatures in Rome around 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit).

I just read the same articles and came here to wonder if it was true! We're going at the end of October but have friends going on an NCL cruise next week

Wildcat strikes are extremely unusual in Italy but they are not unheard of.

These are, by many measures, unusual times. The EU is forcing difficult (but necessary) austerity measures on Italy, Greece, and other economically challenged countries, and none of us would be happy to be in that situation. Imagine if you've expected to retire at 65 for your entire working life and a couple years before it's about to happen the governments says "sorry, now you've got to work until 70." Or let's say you've worked at a particular airline for your entire career with a guaranteed (or so you thought) benefit and retirement plan, but the new owners tell you "sorry, we can't afford that ... and by the way, you've got to work the same job now for less pay."

Some of us have lived through similar situations with various financial crises in our own countries, or corporate buyouts, etc. It's not fun.

Add to that a brutal, two week long heat wave and you've got the perfect storm for agitators who want to stir things up. It stinks if your vacation happens to coincide with a strike action that impedes your plan but ... well, stuff happens unfortunately.

(For what it's worth, they did announce the strike at Pompei several days in advance but because it was not sanctioned it did not appear on the official government web site nor on the Pompei web site. The site wasn't closed but opening was delayed for several hours.)

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2015/07/24/pompeii-union-closure-stokes-fresh-row-at-ancient-site_29a8eb7f-b432-41cb-8ac3-d1796e7b6740.html

I'll just add to euro cruiser's excellent post that USUALLY such strikes do not lead to "strife" (as mentioned by the OP). Of course, nothing is ever set in stone, but a wildcat strike to show displeasure doesn't generally equate to any dangerous conditions for tourists -- just annoyances.

I don't think it would affect most tourists but it can be a pain. I remember one year where there was a garbage collection strike somewhere (Paris?) and the pictures were not pretty.

We are going mid October. Flying one way so I hope the airline stuff is resolved. The hotel has a car picking us up and we have a private operator taking us to the cruise. Other than cabs and such in Rome, hopefully it will be done with.