NZZ shareholders should be able to express their opinion on the closure of the printing plant
As part of the consultation process regarding the closure of the NZZ printing plant in Schlieren, employee committees are proposing to consult with shareholders if management does not ultimately decide to call off the closure. 125 jobs are at risk.
The closure of NZZ-Print is currently "economically unnecessary, strategically wrong and even dangerous from a long-term perspective", write the Schlieren Operations Commission and the NZZ Personnel Commission in their report to the NZZ management published on Monday. Their main proposal is to forego the closure. If the management rejects this, it should at least postpone the closure decision until 2018 and re-evaluate the situation at the end of 2017. At the very least, however, the decision should not be implemented until the 2015 NZZ Annual General Meeting so that a consultative vote can be held among the shareholders.
Shareholders' decision would be accepted by employees
If the NZZ owners were in favor of outsourcing printing, the risk of subsequent legal disputes between shareholders and the NZZ media group or the Board of Directors would be lower. The decision would be better legitimized and would be accepted by the employees, according to the report. The two committees would have gained an impression of the current economic situation of NZZ-Druckerei and the future forecasts during discussions with the company and management. There are business models that also speak in favor of retaining the company's own printing plant for economic reasons, the two commissions write. The reasons for the planned closure are not valid. And for journalistic and publishing reasons, it is simply essential "that the traditional institution Neue Zürcher Zeitung continues to have its own printing plant in the future".
At the end of November 2014, the NZZ Media Group announced that it intended to close the printing plant in Schlieren for economic reasons and have the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and NZZ am Sonntag printed at the Zurich printing center of its competitor Tamedia (Werbewoche.ch reported). As part of the statutory consultation procedure, the workforce had until January 9 to submit proposals to management on how to save the threatened jobs. (SDA)
Teaser photo: Keystone
