Late in the morning, at the USL’s Fifth Congress, Francesca Busignani took the hall back to the streets of a year ago: images of the general strikes against the IGR reform, and just a few words to explain them — the strike as “extrema ratio,” a last resort, and the strength of three trade unions standing together.
Around that moment, the other unions and employers’ associations responded to the invitation to dialogue that Busignani had extended in her report on Wednesday.
The streets of a year ago.
After speeches from unions and consumer groups, the big screen once again showed images from the general strikes of autumn 2025. Busignani explained why: strike action remains the “extrema ratio,” the option you turn to “when there’s no more room for negotiation, when the other side won’t listen.”
That time, she recalled, around ten thousand people took to the streets on the first day and eight thousand on the second. The three unions, united and “thanks to the people they represent,” managed to overturn a law that was “already wrapped up and ready to go,” putting a stop to “this Marchese del Grillo way of doing things.”
The reform was later approved in November, with amendments agreed with the unions. There was one detail Busignani was particularly keen to include: the video also had to show the image of the unions together on stage, “because I think that, amid the difficulty of the moment, it was a good moment.”
First, a clarification.
The second part of the morning had opened with a speech by CSdL secretary general Enzo Merlini, who proposed a new joint battle to USL against the high cost of housing: calling together for the repeal of the law on atypical residencies, which the CSdL says has helped push up rents and house prices.
It’s an issue USL had already raised during one of the congress’s preparatory sessions. In his speech, Merlini also asked that his colleagues be allowed to listen to the delegates’ interventions, as he had been told there would be no opportunity to do so in the afternoon.
Busignani clarified matters briefly. The congress remains open this afternoon too; Friday will be reserved for delegates only, for procedural matters and voting, and even at federation congresses delegates’ speeches have always taken place in front of all the union confederations.
In short, the information he’d received was only half right. Merlini took note and moved on.
Speaking for the CDLS was deputy secretary general Paride Neri, standing in for Milena Frulli. He described trade union pluralism as “an asset” and recalled the joint mobilisation by CSU and USL over the reforms. ADOC, the consumer association affiliated with the UIL, took the opportunity to reaffirm its ties with the Sammarinese Consumers’ Union, a relationship formalised in a protocol signed in 2023.
The outstretched hand, taken up.
On Wednesday evening Busignani had told businesses that permanent confrontation is a thing of the past. This morning, the response came.
ANIS noted that employers’ associations are usually invited to listen to union positions, not to speak, and read into the moment “a cultural shift aimed at reducing confrontation.”
OSLA described its relationship with USL as “historically good.” It also revived the proposal to pool maternity-leave costs, put forward together with UNAS and at the time supported by all three unions, and thanked Mattia Ceccoli for a speech that was “truly remarkable, for us too.”
For UNAS, employers and workers “are not necessarily locked in permanent conflict.”
The face of small business.
USC president Marina Urbinati paid tribute to eighteen years of an organisation that, “though young in the history of Sammarinese social relations, has managed to carve out a recognised role.” She then put a face to the people she represents: the shop in Borgo where a mother and daughter work together, the workshop in Domagnano with employees of twenty years’ standing, the store in Serravalle hiring its first permanent employee. “If we want dignified work, we need dignified business,” she said. The congress title — “on one side only, the side of the people” — is “particularly close to my heart,” she added, because between businesses and unions “we are all on the same side.”
Before the lunch break, a message from USOT recalled the recent renewal of the contract for hotels, restaurants and bars, and the struggle the tourism sector faces in finding staff.
In the afternoon, from 2:45pm, the floor passes to the delegates.
With the doors open, as Busignani was careful to point out.
