SDA: Strike also to take place in French-speaking Switzerland on Thursday
On the second day of their strike, SDA employees drove together to Zurich, where they were received by numerous sympathizers, including from other editorial offices, and accompanied in their procession to Tamedia headquarters, Syndicom, the union for communications and media, wrote on Wednesday evening.
In front of Tamedia's headquarters, the strikers called on SDA Board Chairman Hans Heinrich Coninx to sit down at the negotiating table with them and the unions. Since the Board of Directors and SDA management continue to communicate only through the press and there is no concrete offer for talks, the assembled staff decided to continue the strike, according to the Syndicom union.
In the meantime, following an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday, the SDA Board of Directors has declared in a communiqué that it will enter into talks with the editorial commission this week. The continuation of the strike announced for Thursday is nevertheless to be carried out.
The striking SDA employees were confirmed in their fight for their jobs by the great solidarity they experienced on arrival in Zurich. This shows that this labor dispute is not just about jobs, but that the "basic media services that SDA employees provide in their daily work are appreciated and recognized by their professional colleagues," according to the Syndicom statement. With the exaggerated and hasty savings course, the SDA management is endangering precisely this basic media service, which is so important for the formation of opinion in Switzerland.
The strike continues and is carried into French-speaking Switzerland on the third day
In view of the silent board of directors and the "stubborn attitude of the management", the employees had decided to continue their strike on Thursday, February 1. In order to show that the SDA strike is a national strike and affects all language regions of Switzerland, they will take their fight to French-speaking Switzerland on the third day of the strike. There, too, numerous editorial offices have shown solidarity because they are dependent on SDA's services in the same quality and to the same extent as before, the union announcement continues. Without the current SDA services, a shrinking media offering in French-speaking Switzerland is becoming increasingly likely.
The demands remain
The SDA staff is determined to push through its demands. Any further silence on the part of the Board of Directors and the SDA management confirms them in their struggle for open and fair negotiations, which were never conducted in this way. The talks during the consultation process were not conducted on an equal footing. Information had been withheld and there had been no willingness to talk on the part of the management on the central points. Instead, an attempt was made to implement a "take it or leave it" tactic with an inadequate social plan.
Continuation of the strike confirmed with great acclamation
The decision to carry the strike into the third day was taken at the evening staff meeting to great applause from the assembled staff. The staff expressed their determination to continue the strike until concrete talks on the central demands are available.
In its communication, Syndicom summarizes the key demands of the staff as follows:
- The dismissals and notices of termination that have already been issued must be suspended until a viable and responsible strategy for the future is in place.
- The SDA management and the board of directors should enter into serious negotiations with the editorial commission and its union representatives.
- A solution must be found for the older employees affected that does not plunge them into financial misery.
- A good social plan must be negotiated for all those affected
