2023-11-16 20:48:14
After disappointment, anger. The writing of Provence voted Thursday, November 16 at the general assembly, by 170 votes to 20, the principle of an immediate and renewable strike. The vote follows the announcement by its management, the day before, of the details of the major workforce reduction plan imposed by its new owner.
A year following taking control of the Marseille daily, the shipowner CMA-CGM, led by billionaire Rodolphe Saadé, asked Provence to reduce the payroll of 61 positions, out of the 610 in the company.
The implementation of a “job and career management plan”, supposed to target professions that the group no longer needs, was announced on September 28 during a social and economic committee. On Wednesday, union representatives learned during a meeting with the president and CEO of the newspaper, Gabriel d’Harcourt, that 30 of the 61 positions eliminated concerned the editorial staff. Ultimately, it will only have 155 journalists.
“An unprecedented bloodletting”
To justify this decision, the CEO mentions the financial situation of the company. After losing 12 million euros in 2022, Provence will experience a deficit of 9 million in 2023, while it hoped to reduce it to 6 million euros. “The shareholder has invested 38 million euros since its buyout, and we expected an improvement in paid circulation which did not happen”, concedes Gabriel d’Harcourt. A few days earlier, during a meeting with members of the National Union of Journalists (SNJ), Rodolphe Saadé had warned: “A healthy company cannot continue to lose 10 million euros every year. »
“The editorial staff pays the high price of a social plan that does not speak its name”denounces the newspaper’s inter-union association, evoking “an unprecedented bloodletting in the history of Provence ». The anger is all the stronger given that the editorial job cuts will not be made on a voluntary basis within the framework of the plan, but largely through the non-renewal of 26 fixed-term contracts, whose expiry is December 31.
These employees were, essentially, recruited to compensate for the departure of 64 journalists within the framework of the session clause, automatically opened following the acquisition of Provence by the CMA-CGM. By dismissing these new recruits and not replacing four other starters, the newspaper’s management is going back on its commitment to substitute an arrival for each departure.
You have 35% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
1700170397
#editorial #staff #Provence #strike #announcement #job #cuts
