Protesters showed their anger at budget cuts earlier in the summer The left-wing CGIL is demanding stronger action against tax dodgers and continuing job protection.
Flights have been cancelled, trains and buses will stop, most government offices will be closed.
CGIL, which called the general strike, is Italy's largest union federation. Smaller, more moderate union federations reject the strike.
They say there is no point in striking against employers when everybody's jobs are at risk.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition is being bludgeoned into cutting government spending and raising some taxes by Italy's eurozone partners.
Parliament is due to pass into law this week a much amended austerity plan drawn up hastily during the August holidays at the insistence of the European Central Bank.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has expressed alarm at the growing spread between German and Italian bond rates.
On Monday there were further stock market falls and a new rise in interest rates payable on Italian government debt.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has compared Italy's economic plight to that of Greece.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's popularity rating has sunk to an all-time low.
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