Syndicom: Fight for jobs at Swissprinters
The Swissprinters employees fighting for their jobs in St. Gallen visited the Chairman of Ringier's Board of Directors, Michael Ringier, in Zurich on Tuesday morning and delivered an "open letter" with their demands.
Ringier is the main shareholder of Swissprinters with 58.8 percent and thus bears the main responsibility if 173 jobs in St. Gallen disappear. This writes the Syndicom trade union in a communiqué published on Tuesday. With four autocars, the employees of Swissprinters St. Gallen threatened with job loss and their relatives made a trip to the headquarters of Ringier in Zurich today, Tuesday, morning. 200 people - those affected, Swissprinters employees from the three other production sites, politicians and members of the supporting Syndicom union - protested loudly at Dufourstrasse against the threatened closure of the St. Gallen plant and the planned sale of the Schlieren site.
In his address, Paul Rechsteiner took a sharp line not only against Swissprinters' main shareholder Ringier, but also against NZZ (25.2 percent shareholding) and Tamedia (16 percent shareholding). The SGB president stressed that the three largest and extremely financially strong media groups were acting irresponsibly and antisocially with their decision to cut more than 250 jobs - and this solely because their profit margins were too low in view of the high price pressure in the industry.
Alain Carrupt, Co-President of Syndicom, emphasized the full solidarity of the union, which is also a party to the CLA for the graphic arts industry. Syndicom is supporting the Swissprinters employees in St. Gallen and Schlieren who are fighting for their jobs and their existence with all the means at its disposal. The three financially strong publishers and owners of Swissprinters have sufficient reserves to get through a lean period and implement future solutions without layoffs, Carrupt continued.
Towards the end of the demonstration in front of Ringier headquarters, which lasted about three quarters of an hour, an "open letter" was handed over to Michael Ringier, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Riniger, to great applause, with the following main demands: No closure of the St. Gallen production site, initiation of serious talks with the Swissprinters operating committee and the Syndicom union on how solutions can be implemented.
