Tamedia employees in German-speaking Switzerland in solidarity with French-speaking employees

"Like our colleagues in French-speaking Switzerland, we are also highly concerned about the dramatically eroding media diversity in Switzerland," reads a statement from the staff committees of Tamedia German-speaking Switzerland (Tamedia Central Editorial Office, Tages-Anzeiger, Der Bund/Berner Zeitung, Zurich regional newspapers, Tamedia Editorial Services).

As a result of the mergers, acquisitions and restructurings of the recent past, in which Tamedia unfortunately played a pioneering role, media concentration has also taken on worrying proportions in German-speaking Switzerland.

In French-speaking Switzerland, however, this media concentration has already progressed to such an extent that the private media can only fulfill their democratic functions to a limited extent. Like their colleagues in French-speaking Switzerland, they are therefore dismayed by the latest, far-reaching cost-cutting decisions that Tamedia's management is currently implementing in both French-speaking and German-speaking Switzerland - and this without adequately informing the public or even the workforce about the extent of these job and service cuts.

"Disappointed in our employer"

Against this background, "we have the greatest understanding for the strike of our colleagues in French-speaking Switzerland. And we are disappointed with our employer, who in a first reaction had no better answer than to threaten the striking colleagues with a unilateral termination of the valid collective labor agreement." The employees of Tamedia Deutschschweiz urgently call on the owners, the Board of Directors, the publisher and the management of Tamedia not to be guided in their entrepreneurial decisions solely by return on equity and shareholder benefit, but - like their predecessors - also to take into account the indispensable function of the media in terms of state policy.

The discontinuation of the print edition of Le Matin should be suspended, and a solution should be sought together with all parties involved and potential buyers that would better serve the interests of the public, the workforce and the more than 200,000 readers per day. A "serious and open-ended dialog" should be entered into with the editorial teams of Tamedia Suisse Romande - with the aim of withdrawing the redundancies already made and preventing further redundancies. (SDA)

Solidarity from the editorial offices in German-speaking Switzerland - including demands to the Group management. 1TP5Varietyinsteadofdegradation #Tamedia #Streak pic.twitter.com/MrPvAuWHtc

- Inside Tamedia (@inside_tamedia) July 4, 2018