The morale has been rather low in the
media over the last month : the crisis has hit hard the industry which is
supposed to be democracy's watchdog.
Restructurings are taking place,
sometimes with «friendly arrangements » with the unions. The media
employers are still looking for increasing profits in a context of economic
recession and President Sarkozy is interfering in media policy like no other
president since decades.
The participating trade unions (SNJ, SNJ-CGT, USJ-CFDT, SGJ-FO, CFTC and CGC Journalists' Trade Unions) call on
all journalists to mobilise for the national day of a general strike and
demonstrations planned for March 19, on the following themes:
- Defend jobs in both the public and
private sectors: halt sackings and job cuts
For several months now we have seen
increasing numbers of company closures, redundancy plans, early retirement and
other job-cutting schemes in the media sector. The coming year is set to bring
even worse news: at least 900 jobs are threatened in the state-run France
Télévisions group, 170 at Radio France Internationale, 50 in the
Express-Roularta magazine group, similar numbers at both the M6 private TV
company and the Nice Matin daily, 30 at Prisma Presse - and there are even more
cuts on the horizon!
- Fight increasing labour precarity,
combat social and economic deregulation
At least 20% of all French journalists
are now employed under short-term or freelance contracts or other non-permanent
arrangements. In 2008 warning lights began flashing when no less than four out
of every 10 new French press cards issued were to people who did not have
stable employment. A quarter of all journalists in the country are now either
on short-term or freelance contracts, or unemployed. - Demand that our labour agreements
maintain purchasing power and reduce inequality for wage-earners, the
unemployed and pensioners. After having imposed cuts in our purchasing power
for several years running, the employers' union of the French national daily
press (PQN), as well as that of news magazines (SPMI) have already announced
total wage freezes for the coming period. The situation of many journalists,
some of whom now earn less than the legal monthly minimum wage, is going to get
even worse.
- Defend the overall collective framework
of social protection and solidarity (mainly health and pensions entitlements)
- Maintain public interest in quality
information services
The French government is dismantling the
public television service, which is being deprived of sustainable funding and
risks losing its editorial independence through the appointment of its top
management by the President. There are also moves afoot to change the
statutes of Agence France-Presse. These are unacceptable attacks on both the
quality and the pluralism of information and democracy which come on the top of
the plan to dismantle the part of our national journalists' collective
agreement concerning the public TV service. This could lead to a complete
unravelling of the overall "convention collective" agreement, which
is essential for journalists working under French labour laws.
The EFJ supports its French affiliates
for their national day of strikes and protests on Thursday!
Messages of solidarity can be sent to:
SNJ: [email protected]
SNJ-CGT: [email protected]
