Euronews in Lyon. PHILIPPE DESMAZES
Nearly 200 jobs are to be cut as part of a social plan.
The unions of the international news channel Euronews, based in Lyon where nearly 200 jobs are to be cut, called on Thursday the employees to strike to protest against the social plan, they said. “The strike begins today, Thursday March 16, at 5:00 p.m. and ends Monday, March 20, at 6:00 a.m.“, Announced in a press release an inter-union SNJ / CFE-CGC / SNRT-CGT Audiovisual, after a general meeting.
“The purpose of this strike is “empty offices”. We invite you to stay at home“, she added, addressing the employees of Euronews. On March 2, during an extraordinary meeting of the CSE, the management had presented a plan providing for 198 layoffs by October 2024 in Lyon – out of some 500 employees – as part of a job safeguarding plan ( PSE), according to the SNJ.
The objective is to relaunch the chain in the face of catastrophic results: around 160 million losses in ten years and, for the year 2021 alone, a net result of -20 million euros. “Nine months after buying Euronews, the Portuguese investment fund Alpac Capital announced the dismissal of 197 employees out of a workforce of 349 permanent employees.“, said Thursday in a press release the CGT, advancing the latest figures from the PSE.
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“A social and editorial massacre”
According to the union, which denounces “a social and editorial massacre“, THE “two-thirds of the editorial staff are ousted” And “a total of 128 journalists, 57 technicians and 12 administrative staff will lose their jobs“. “A marathon is on. Let’s all fight together to reduce the number of layoffs, improve departure conditions, guarantee reclassifications and guarantee good working conditions for those who remain.“, added the CGT.
The project of the management of Euronews, which hopes for a return to financial equilibrium “by 2025», aims to make Brussels «the nerve center of the devicewith the creation of more than 100 positions, including 70 journalists on site. Fifty other journalist posts are to be created in six major European capitals, with the headquarters remaining in Lyon.with more than 140 employees“. But according to the SNJ, employees kept in Lyon will probably have to leave “in the last quarter of 2024» the current building that will be put up for sale. “Not all deleted positions will be recreated and for those that are recreated, they will be open to external recruitment“Said Marie Jamet, elected SNJ, interviewed by AFP.
Launched in 1993 by some twenty European channels, Euronews passed last July under the control of the investment fund Alpac Capital, based in Portugal, which acquired 88% of the shares of the company by buying back the shares held by the magnate Egyptian Naguib Sawiris via his holding company MGN., Euronews broadcasts information continuously in 15 languages with an editorial staff of 400 journalists of 30 nationalities. She had already launched in November 2020 a social plan which led to around thirty departures, including around ten forced.