Shutdown also hits US bases in Italy: grounded flights and salaries at risk for 4,000 workers

However, the blockade of administrative activities imposed by the shutdown as of 1 October last poses a problem of a legal nature: American legislation provides that workers may not be paid, whereas Italian legislation does not. In detail: the shutdown procedure allows administrations to leave employees deemed 'indispensable' at work, who are not paid but are guaranteed a refund of arrears when the stalemate is lifted, and to put those who are not indispensable on leave instead, without, moreover, the assurance of receiving the 'lost' salaries, because the decision is in the hands of the President in office. In Italy, this scenario is not contemplated: 'It is not legal to work without being paid, nor is it legal to be put on leave without any form of social cushioning, such as the redundancy fund,' the Uiltucs coordinator pointed out.

Since 30 October last there are 409 Italian workers at the Usaf Base in Aviano (Pordenone) employed by the US State who have not been paid their salaries due to the US shutdown. A situation that would also affect another thousand workers in the rest of Italy. Despite the meetings of the trade unions - in particular on Thursday with the deputy commander of the base - there is no news about a possible salary payment, nor indications about the future. On Friday, 7 November, a workers' assembly was held, also open to local politicians, at times with even polemical confrontations, to find a solution. Some workers emphasised that the non-payment of wages is compounded by daily expenses, with more than a few having to travel dozens of kilometres to reach the base. Alternative forms of work, such as teleworking, are not contemplated. "For these employees," explained Angelo Zaccaria of Uiltuct-Uil, "the Italian Workers' Statute is in force, so the workforce is not subject to the US government blockade. And in this sense he also called for 'an intervention by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni'. 'Something like this has never happened to me in 50 years,' Zaccaria observed. He does not rule out the possibility of calling a strike among the initiatives being studied. 'I am inclined,' he announces. One of the solutions being worked on is a loan that could be granted by a bank that could advance the salaries.

Italy is not the first country to fall under the axe of the shutdown. On 22 October, Germany's Ministry of Finance announced that it would pay the October salaries of the approximately 11,000 employees of American military bases in the country, whose salaries were threatened by the budget paralysis in the US due to the shutdown. It was explained at the time that the payments would later be reimbursed by the Americans.

In early October, the city of Yokosuka, home of the US Navy's Seventh Fleet, was forced to cancel a fireworks display scheduled for the weekend. The city hall of the city south of Tokyo announced that it was no longer able to guarantee public access to a grandstand to watch the fireworks, as the event - which was to open part of the space inside the US naval base - was cancelled due to the government shutdown. Meanwhile, also in Okinawa, another appointment with the American military presence was cancelled: it was the Futenma Flight Line Fair, an event organised by the Marine Corps, which was supposed to take place at the Futenma air base on the island in the south-west of the archipelago, where more than 25,000 US military personnel are stationed.

Meanwhile, in the US, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy explained in an interview with Fox that if the situation worsens, the cut in air traffic at US airports could reach up to 20% due to the shutdown. Currently the reduction is 4% and will rise, Duffy explained, to 10% next week.