Workers are on strike in Florence today

The crisis at the Italian luxury fashion retailer LuisaViaRoma continues to worsen. While discussions with potential investors continue, concerns about hundreds of jobs are growing. Trade unions are calling for strikes and protests.

Three days ago, management and union representatives met for a meeting. From the unions’ perspective, there is a clear trend towards a liquidation settlement. As the newspaper La Nazione reports, the judicial protection measures granted as part of the process for the negotiated solution to the crisis expired yesterday. The company then announced that it would submit an application for a liquidation settlement. The aim is to regain protection from creditors and suspend enforcement measures for another sixty days.

“The negotiated solution to the crisis has not been reached, but negotiations with the new investors continue. A capital increase of 15 million euros has been decided and the subscription deadline is April 20,” explained Tommaso Andorlini, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and main shareholder of LuisaViaRoma, to the newspaper La Nazione. He recalled that “our goal is the same as that of the union, namely to protect jobs. We have already reached agreements with 90 percent of the creditors and now have another 60 days to finalize them.”

The Filcams Cgil Firenze union warns in a statement that “hundreds of jobs are at risk”. A strike and a rally have therefore been announced for today, March 26th. Another meeting on the situation is planned for March 31 at the regional level. The strike should take place in the last four hours of working hours; the rally begins at 3:30 p.m. in front of the historic Luisa Via Roma shop at Via Roma 16/21R in Florence.

“The news that Luisa Via Roma is seeking discontinuity through a corporate restructuring leaves us speechless. Even more speechless will certainly be all the workers who, despite the existing solidarity agreement, were confident that an industrial solution would take precedence. Today we are talking about discontinuity through a liquidation settlement,” the unions write. “We do not forget that as a result of the crisis and the poor decisions of a management that did not show itself to be able to cope with the situation, over a hundred workers have left Luisa Via Roma in the last year and a half. These included those who saw no logic in the measures and those who were formally asked to leave the company in exchange for signing a settlement,” the workers’ representatives continued.

At the same time, the company confirmed to employees that the website would be operated by a subsidiary in the future – but this is for sale. According to current knowledge, there are already potential buyers. According to management, the development of the new website will also be outsourced to an external company. “At the same time, we have no knowledge of what will happen to the historic stores that contributed to the reputation of the Luisa Via Roma brand even before the advent of the Internet,” emphasize the union representatives of Luisa Via Roma and Filcams Cgil Firenze.

Overall, hundreds of jobs are at stake – both directly and indirectly. In addition to around 200 employees at Luisa Via Roma itself, around a hundred other employees who work for a subcontractor in the warehouse in Campi Bisenzio are affected.

“As Filcams Cgil Florence and the union representation of Luisa Via Roma, we once again appeal to the institutions. They should take the side of the employees at the next meeting of the crisis center of the Tuscany region on March 31, 2026. They are the ones who, every day, use their know-how to create the true added value of every work.”