Rapprochement between trade unions and publishers

 There appears to be a rapprochement between the trade unions and publishers on the issue of the Press Council. Until now, the trade unions have been opposed to publishers having a seat on the Press Council because they broke off negotiations on a collective labor agreement. The fact that the publishers' association is not represented on such a body is an exception in the European context. Now the fronts appear to be softening. In November, the trade unions will decide whether they want to open the door to the Press Council for the Swiss Press Association. The publishers have also backed away from their previous demands: They always wanted equal representation on the board, now they would also be satisfied with three seats. Markus Dütschler, President of Impressum Bern, praised the good discussions with publishers at the publishers' congress in Lucerne. Guido Blumer, publisher of the Winterthur Stadtblatt, is overseeing the negotiations on behalf of the publishers' association. He said that despite the positive talks so far, he feared that the union base might not agree to the proposal.
Dütschler also called on the association "not to hide behind the president". The background to this statement is probably that association president Hanspeter Lebrument is considered an opponent of a collective labor agreement. Dütschler went on to say that the publishers had previously pursued a "landlord-style wage policy".