The very short strike of Italian beach operators – Technologist

Marinella beach went on strike. On the morning of Friday, August 9, like hundreds of other beach operators, Emiliano Migliore, 39, delayed opening the 250 perfectly-aligned umbrellas on the stretch of coastline near Ostia, which his family has managed since 1980. Beachgoers, who usually start flocking to the gray sand at 8 am, had to wait.

Not for too long, though. The national strike, called by two beach operator unions, was scheduled between 7:30 and 9:30 am. It has to be said that in Italy, despite the crisis in the sector, access to private beaches – which occupy vast swaths of the coastline – has something sacred about it. This is all the more so as August 15 approaches, the pinnacle of the Italian summer, when the country takes a collective break and its people flock to the seaside.

“It’s a gentle strike! We just want to remind the government of its responsibilities,” said Migliore. Yet, among the radio news headlines playing through the beach bar’s speakers where he was sitting, the operators’ movement comes first, ahead of news on the resumption of talks between Israel and Hamas, the Ukrainian incursion into Russia and the Paris Olympics.

A de facto income

It is a unique system in Europe, which manages the operations of 6,592 beach establishments along Italy’s most beautiful stretches of coast and is the subject of a nearly two-decade-old dispute between Rome and Brussels. Moreover, it could be facing its final days: The Italian government, which has diligently protected the powerful, right-leaning lobby, now seems unable to save it.

The Migliore family history is a quintessentially Italian tale. “My grandfather, who came from a family of fishermen, began working on this beach in 1953,” said the Marinella beach owner. At that time, post-war Italy was in the midst of an economic boom, mass tourism was on the rise and beaches that had previously been ignored were becoming a lucrative resource. Municipalities began granting concessions for modest sums, which were automatically renewed, without inviting tenders.

Thus, after taking over the beach from his boss in 1980, grandfather Migliore was able to pass it on to his son, before it eventually went to Emiliano. This system creates a de facto income, with operators having to pay only very modest royalties, out of all proportion to their revenues. The sector gradually began to be linked to mismanagement and corruption, including illegal construction, environmental damage and mafia involvement.

In 2006, however, the Italian system of beach concessions was threatened by the adoption of the Bolkestein directive on the opening up of services, which mandated the introduction of public tenders. Since then, the issue of Italy’s private beaches has been reduced to a litany of reprimands from Brussels and evasiveness from Rome, as the government has no interest in alienating the beach operators’ lobby. “We voted for the right-wing coalition in power because it was committed to protecting our model,” said a disappointed Migliore.

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