Overview
- Theatre workers went on strike Tuesday, forcing Fondazione Teatro alla Scala to cancel the scheduled premiere of Gounod’s Faust and offering refunds for ticket-holders.
- Unions are seeking a 15% increase in annual gross pay plus future inflation-linked adjustments to recover what they say is a 23–24% erosion in purchasing power.
- The action unites orchestra, chorus, ballet, technicians, stage crews and administrative staff after an October 12 assembly of more than 450 workers voted overwhelmingly for mobilisation.
- Management says the unions’ pay demand would cost roughly €37 million over three years and warned that upcoming premieres, including a Requiem on October 28 and a ballet on November 7, could also be affected.
- The dispute also covers allowances, working hours, job classifications and conversion of intermittent contracts, and it feeds into a planned sector-wide theatre strike on October 27 with possible impacts on staffing, recruitment and public funding debates.