Strike at Tamedia Romandie

The editorial teams of all Tamedia publications in French-speaking Switzerland plan to strike until midnight on Wednesday, as announced by the Syndicom trade union and the Imprint journalists' association on Tuesday. The strike was decided by 88 percent of the editorial staff. Starting at 4 p.m., dozens of employees met in front of Tamedia's high-rise building in Lausanne for a sit-in.

Shortly after 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Tamedia sent out a message calling for an immediate end to the strike: "Tamedia calls on all employees of Le Matin and the representatives of Impressum to end the strike immediately. Otherwise, Tamedia could terminate the CLA." Tamedia's statement continues, "After responding in great detail to the proposals of the delegation of employees and unions last week, Tamedia has called on the representatives of the editorial offices and Impressum to begin working out a social plan on June 28, 2018, taking the CLA into account. The aim of these negotiations is to put in place accompanying measures that will enable those affected to cushion the impact of a job loss and help them find a new job."

Syndicom's justification for the strike is as follows: "Tamedia's editorial offices in western Switzerland condemn the announced discontinuation of the print edition of Le Matin and the dismissals that Tamedia has issued, even though conciliation proceedings were underway before the cantonal conciliation board. They are outraged that Tamedia rejected the editors' proposals - which were intended to limit the impact of the measures taken by Tamedia." The strikers' demands, according to the Syndicom release, are: "that the Tamedia group engage seriously, intensively and without prior exclusion of any solution - including the surrender of titles - in a process that can preserve the diversity of the press of French-speaking Switzerland." Further, the union said, the editorial offices are demanding that Tamedia offer the affected individuals the withdrawal of the dismissals issued since June 2018 for the time being.

Tamedia plans to discontinue the print edition of Le Matin at the end of July (Advertising week reported). 41 employees are threatened with the loss of their jobs. The medium will only exist online and will be further developed with a 15-person editorial team. However, the Sunday newspaper Le Matin Dimanche is not affected by the cutbacks. Tamedia justified the decision at the beginning of June with "the continuing losses of the print edition" of Le Matin. In 2017, the paper's deficit was around CHF 6.3 million, and CHF 34 million over the last ten years. The Tamedia Group reported a profit of CHF 170 million for the past year. (SDA/nod)

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