No round table to save St. Paul's printing house
The fate of the Saint Paul printing plant in Freiburg seems to be sealed: After a refusal on the part of the Freiburg News, the Freiburg government refrains from organizing a round table to save the Saint-Paul newspaper printing plant.
The conditions for a successful outcome of the round table discussion are not given, the government wrote on Tuesday to the address of the Syndicom trade union. Syndicom and the personnel committee of the printing company had requested such a round table from the cantonal government in February. All parties concerned were to work together to find solutions for preserving the 50 jobs at risk. The background to this is the decision by the Saint Paul Group to close the newspaper printing plant at the end of 2014 because its most important customer, the Fribourg News, will in future have the newspaper printed by Tamedia in Bern (Werbewoche.ch reported).
Those affected were supported by 11,500 Fribourg residents who had called for a Fribourg solution for the Fribourg newspapers in a petition. As it became known on Tuesday, the board of directors of the Fribourg News is sticking to its decision. The Fribourg government therefore justifies its rejection of a round table with a lack of perspectives and a lack of room for negotiation.
The Syndicom union is sticking to its demand despite the negative decision, as it announced on Tuesday. It is still possible to find a way "that will bring the planned savings to the Fribourg News and guarantee the survival of the newspaper printing at St-Paul in the coming years. Both are prerequisites for a secure independence of the Fribourg local press, "which we see endangered by the dependence on the media conglomerate Tamedia." (SDA)
