In brief: Dockworkers at seven Italian ports — Genoa, Livorno, Trieste, Civitavecchia, Ancona, Ravenna and Gioia Tauro — will strike on October 30, 2026, as part of a coordinated international protest by port-worker unions.
The action is organised by a coalition of unions including USB and Orsa Porti in Italy, together with counterparts in France, Greece, the Basque Country, Türkiye and Morocco. Organisers say the participating unions handle around 40% of container traffic in the Mediterranean, and the protest footprint runs along roughly 1,100 nautical miles of coastline from southwest France to Piraeus. Local reporting cites an estimate that the stoppage could leave around 40,000 containers idle for the day. The stated grounds for the action are opposition to the transit of arms shipments through commercial ports and to port automation, rather than pay alone.
Shippers and forwarders moving cargo through Italian Mediterranean ports should expect delays to vessel handling, gate access and container pickup around October 30, and should plan buffer time for bookings touching these terminals that week.
Source: Primocanale, October 21, 2026.