Workers affiliated with USB Lavoro Privato staged a 24-hour strike across the Marche region’s urban and inter-urban bus networks on 23 September 2026, with demonstrators picketing the regional government offices in Ancona. Services were guaranteed only during the legally protected windows (05:30–08:29 and 17:00–20:00); outside those hours, most departures were cancelled. Although limited to one region, the walk-out affected road links between Ancona Airport, the port of Ancona and inland industrial parks that host aerospace and white-goods suppliers. Business travellers landing on morning flights from Milan or Munich struggled to find onward connections, and some companies arranged ad-hoc shuttles to keep production lines staffed. The union is protesting what it calls chronic understaffing, unsafe vehicles and rising living costs. USB warns that without a pay-indexation clause it may escalate to a national strike—echoing separate taxi-driver threats over fuel prices reported the same day in Rome. Mobility managers with field staff in central Italy should therefore keep contingency transport options and monitor further strike notices filed with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. Under Italy’s strike-regulation law, at least 10 days’ notice is required, so future disruptions can be tracked on the ministry’s scioperi portal. Employers obligated to guarantee ‘essential services’—notably pharmaceutical and food-processing plants—should review internal emergency-travel protocols and update employee communications channels, particularly for shift workers who rely on public transport. While the immediate economic impact is local, the strike feeds into a broader pattern of labour unrest in the transport sector that could converge with aviation or rail walk-outs later in the autumn, further complicating domestic mobility.
Source: ANSA / ATMA
