Fast Train / strike

This is a list of Trenitalia long range trains always running in case of strike:
https://www.trenitalia.com/content/dam/tcom/allegati/trenitalia_2014/informazioni/TABELLA_A_Treni_garantiti_DPLH.pdf

(a shorter list applies if the strike begins at 9pm on a Saturday and is less than 24 hour long: https://www.trenitalia.com/content/dam/tcom/allegati/trenitalia_2014/informazioni/TABELLA_B_Treni_garantiti_DPLH.pdf)

You can't have too much information about the strike because this is the negotiation game. It can be called off - so check the strike list to see if it is still there - but nobody is legally allowed to check in advance if a worker will strike, so what is happening in real life you can only discover if and when the strike begins.

My personal opinion, already expressed in another thread, is that the Oct. 20th strike is called by small unions so it is unlikely a large share of workers will strike. I would expect some cancelled trains, but not too many of them.

How soon will we know if the strike is really on?

They can call off a strike at the last minute.

Where is it best to get information as to whether or not the strike is happening.

Unless you can speak Italian, I guess you can check here: https://www.ansa.it/english/

In the event the trains are not running will we be entitled to a refund,

No, railway companies are not responsible for Unions' decisions

or rebook?

It depends on the fare you have purchased, not on the strike

our tickets are not changeable, will they be in the event the strike goes forward?

No, they won't. Did you check if your train is guaranteed to run during a strike?

Will we be able to do that the day before?

That depends on the fare you purchased, too.

understand the italia trains will run

There is no railway company called Italia trains. If you mean Italotreno and Trenitalia's Freccias high speed services, they rarely take part in strikes; Italotreno's worker's even more rarely than Trenitalia's.

Especially when a strike has been called by miniscule Unions looking for visibility.

the strike doesn’t involve them,

Technically a national strike involves any worker, Unionised or not. But most of Italotreno's workers are not unionised and behave accordingly, whereas most of Freccia workers are members of the big Unions.

On the other hand nobody can tell you if a single train's crew and engineers are going to strike or not.

Workers have no obligation to tell what they are going to do during a strike. You just have to wait, it's August and this strike should happen in October. Frankly, I'd forget the problem till September. Nothing is happening in August and you can't do nothing.

Are there likely to be tickets available in such an event?

It depends on how many workers will go on strike and on how many railway workers will go on strike. In the remote event that all Trenitalia high speed trains were cancelled, people would either try to get a ticket for a guaranteed train or thry would travel with Italotreno. But, again, nobody can find out in early August how many workers are going to strike in late October. Nobody cares, actually.

According to trenitalia refund rules (https://www.trenitalia.com/it/informazioni/la_guida_del_viaggiatore/i_rimborsi.html) if a train is cancelled the traveler is entitled to a full refund; also if the traveler does not begin the trip due to a delay greater than one hour. I see that a refund is possible from the moment a strike is called to the moment the train leaves, but I never tried this in real life.

Trenitalia will refund even the cost of “nonrefundable” train tickets when the train is cancelled due to a strike.
But historically, high-speed trains in Italy run as scheduled even when an Italian train strike is scheduled. Strikes in recent years mostly have impacted regional trains. Last month, when a 48-hour rail strike began affecting intercity and high-speed trains, the Transportation Minister issued an order forcing the unions to curtail the strike. So it’s far more likely that you will be unaffected and you will be able to use your train tickets as planned.

Thank you all for your very informative information.