On Monday, some 50 Gucci designers, the employees who think up, design and make garments and collections, went on strike for four hours outside the fashion company's Rome headquarters against the decision to transfer 153 out of 219 employees to Milan by March 1, 2024. The union representing textile workers said that for them "this is a disguised collective dismissal, because not everyone has been offered the conditions to allow a transfer, so many people will lose their Jobs”. Gucci was founded in 1921 in Florence, and is now owned by the French luxury goods group Kering, which also includes brands such as Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Bottega Veneta, and Pomellato. Its Roman office has historically been very important to the company's identity: Chiara Giannotti, the company's workers' union representative, called it "the heart of Gucci, where designers and couturiers work and where all the collections are born”. Some striking employees carried placards with slogans such as "Gucci lifts jobs," "Gucci cuts, Milan sews”, and "At Gucci it is fashionable to be fired”. The employees' main suspicion is that Kering wants to gradually close the Rome office and has offered conditions that are difficult to accept to employees who have been offered relocation in the hope that at least some of them will resign voluntarily.