Trade union communiqué on the 27 March 2026 strike
The note of the National Press Federation explaining why the website on Friday will not be updated and the newspaper on Saturday will not be on the newsstands
On Friday, 27 March, female journalists will go on strike again for the renewal of their labour contract, which has expired for ten years and is the only category of employees in Italia. This is the second day of strike in a package of five, the third is already proclaimed for 16 April.
Having a renewed contract is not a privilege. Being paid decently, in and out of editorial offices, is not a privilege. To work without permanent precariousness is not a privilege. To provide free, professional and independent information, without economic blackmail, is a right. Guaranteeing decent conditions for those who work, for those who enter the profession and for those who leave it is an obligation. Ensuring a future for information, a common good protected by the Constitution, Article 21 intimately connected to Article 36, is a social duty.
Publishers, on the contrary, prefer to offload labour costs onto the community. The numbers speak for themselves: between 2024 and 2026 they have received EUR 162 million in public subsidies for paper copies sold; in the same two-year period another EUR 66 million for 1,012 early retirements; between 2022 and 2025 they have saved around EUR 154 million on paper purchases; between 2024 and 2026 they will have another EUR 17.5 million for investments in innovative technologies.
These are privileges for the very few and, what is more, at the expense of all Italians.
Since 1 April 2016, the expiry of the last contract, everything has changed: workloads and work rhythms have increased out of all proportion, multiplatform performance, almost ghost editorial offices. Wages, on the other hand, have remained static, further eroded by inflation or even reduced by savage flat rates.
