12 June 2009

RFI : EFJ Supports Strike and “Genuine” Dialogue with Management

The European Federation of Journalist (EFJ), the

European group of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), today

reaffirmed its solidarity with and support to striking journalists at Radio

France Internationale (RFI), as the industrial action enters its second month.

« This action, supported by over 60% of the

staff, is justified in view of the threats over RFI. We are calling on management

to engage in a genuine dialogue with the striking unions," said EFJ President

Arne König. "The strike is about the respect for journalists but it is also in

the interest of RFI as a public service provider and a major international

media».

The strike started on 12 May and it is the

longest industrial action in broadcasting history since the general social

movement in 1968. The striking unions are protesting against the management's social

plan which includes 206 redundancies or a quarter of the workforce. So far the

management has held talks only with one non-striking union.

The demands of the striking unions, FO, SNJ, SNJ-CGT and SNRT-CGT are :

the preservation of the collective agreement in public broadcasting for RFI against the management's plans to impose new working conditions, following the change of RFI legal status introduced in March;
the respect for the public service programming and for workers' social protection;
the respect for the independence and pluralism threatened by the government's recently introduced powers to appoint members of public broadcasters' boards;
no compulsory redundancies and
the withdrawal of the social plan

See:
- RFI Riposte, the blog of the strikers: http://rfiriposte.wordpress.com/
- the

EFJ represents over 250,000 journalists

in more than 30 countries of Europe