Journalists and publishers in Italy clash over contract renewal.
Italian journalists working at newspapers, news agencies and national broadcasters will stage a walkout for 24 hours on Thursday, marking the third time in a matter of months that the profession has taken industrial action over the same set of grievances.
The strike was called by the Federazione Nazionale della Stampa Italiana (FNSI), the national journalists’ union, in response to what it describes as the intransigence of publishers grouped under the FIEG – the federation of Italian newspaper and periodical publishers – at the contract renewal negotiating table.
The central dispute concerns a national collective labour agreement that has now been expired for ten years.
During that decade, publishers have benefited from public subsidies while journalists’ salaries have been eroded by inflation.
The FNSI is seeking not only a pay settlement but also new contractual protections covering both staff journalists and freelancers working on a self-employed basis.
Failings
The union has highlighted several specific failings in the current framework. There are no rules governing the use of artificial intelligence or the fair economic recognition owed to journalists whose content is passed to major online platforms.
Freelance and self-employed journalists face particular hardship: thousands of them have waited years for the establishment of a minimum fair rate of pay, and their incomes have fallen below the poverty line, newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano reports.
The FNSI also accuses publishers of driving down labour costs through the excessive use of precarious employment, a form of contractual dumping.
Quality of information
The union argues that the dignity of journalistic work bears directly on the quality of information reaching citizens, and that the sector requires better and more targeted public funding that directly supports newsrooms.
Regional press associations have organised rallies in the main Italian cities to accompany the walkout, though participation in a demonstration was not a condition of joining the strike.
The FNSI also issued guidance confirming that employers cannot legally prevent, limit or sanction participation in the action, and that neither editorial committees nor individual journalists are obliged to give their employers advance notice of their intention to strike.
Photo credit: Cineberg / Shutterstock.com
