News

Swissprinters SA today announced its intention to close by mid-2012 its production sites in Zurich and St. Gallen, with more than 200 job losses. Syndicom requires the adoption of measures to maintain these sites and the immediate opening of negotiations with the union and commission staff.



Swissprinters justifies this restructuring because of the strong franc and low profit margins. Syndicom strongly condemns these closures as both brutal and irresponsible face of staff. The main shareholder is Swissprinters Ringier, the others being Tamedia and NZZ. These three media groups have sufficient financial reserves to respond sensibly to the problems being faced today in the printing industry: profit margins below expectations can not justify a redundancy!



National Councillor Corrado Pardini (supported by Edi Engelberger) agreed with syndicom to request from parliament that the Confederation where they are a main shareholder (CFF, Post, Swisscom, etc.) should entrust their printing jobs to Swissprinters This company also has a Swiss collective labor contract in the industry. Pressure from the Swiss Trade Union (ASU) on the political parties and the National Bank to weaken the Swiss franc are starting to have some effect. These measures and others will help to improve the situation in the printing industry.



Syndicom therefore calls on Swissprinters to cancel immediately and permanently its decisions to closing sites and layoffs. Swissprinters must put the facts on the table in serious negotiations conducted with the union and commission staff. We want to review, together with this company and with the political settlement of the townships, the measures to maintain active production sites in St. Gallen and Zurich, while avoiding the staff of Swissprinters having to live with the fear of dismissal as a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.



Berne, 12 October 2011



Information



Hans-Peter Graf, head of the branch graph syndicom Industry, 079 326 42 05



Dominik Dietrich, Regional Secretary of syndicom responsible Swissprinters, 079 938 89 95