Beat Kenubühler will succeed Thomas Gsponer, who will retire in the fall after 16 years in charge of the association. He will take up office on October 1. The 49-year-old has his roots in the graphic arts industry. Having completed an apprenticeship as an offset printer and typographer, he belongs to the rare species of "Swiss swordsmen". After completing his basic vocational training, he worked in various graphic arts companies and agencies, taking on management functions at a young age, including as head of department and vocational trainer. Beat Kneubühler completed several further training courses: Typographic Designer EFA, SKUGRA Diploma Course in Business Management, and a CAS in NPO Management at the VMI Association Management Institute of the University of Fribourg.
Beat Kneubühler joined Viscom in 2007 and has been a member of the Executive Board since 2010. From 2011 to 2015, he was responsible for the Innovation/Management/Environment (IMU) department. Since 2015, he has been head of the Vocational Training department, which is important for the viscom association. Under his leadership, this area has been dynamically developed. A highlight of his work was the planning and implementation of the new national training and administration center visCampus in Aarau 2020/2021. The existing Executive Board will actively support him in his new activity: Paul Fischer (Deputy Director), Stefano Gazzaniga, Marcel Weber.
Beat Kneubühler lives in Ermatingen, Thurgau, is married and has two children.
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Over 4,600 eligible voters are running for the National Council and Council of States and are facing an exciting election campaign in the cantons. Despite advancing digitalization, print media still form the backbone of democratic opinion-forming.
The Swiss Association for Visual Communication Viscom has made candidates aware of the advantages of a print campaign. Personalized mailings show various possibilities and arouse the anticipation of electoral success. The effectiveness is backed up with facts and figures. For example, print media have a seven times stronger effect on customer loyalty than digital media.
In the Federal Parliament, the Print Parliamentary Group advocates the concerns of the industry, which generates value added of CHF 4.2 billion with over 12,000 employees.
Responsible at Viscom: Thomas Gsponer, Director. Responsible at Basel West Corporate Communications: Markus Siegenthaler (consulting, conception); Thomas Aerni (conception, design); Roland Juker (photography).
The domestic printing industry is struggling to keep its presses busy and preserve jobs. Parliament has now decided that the companies should receive more backing from the federal government. These, writes the Switzerland at the weekendThey like to print abroad, and often do so. The SBB magazine Via is printed in Germany, the Swisscom telephone books and the post office stamps as well. All Swisslos tickets are printed in the USA (!).
At the behest of Lucerne SVP National Councilor Felix Müri, these companies are now to be obliged to procure their print products only in Switzerland. Parliament has approved his motion.
However, this might not be quite so simple. Swiss Post, for example, states that it prints the stamps abroad because this is not possible in Switzerland in the desired quality. The printing industry responds that the requirements profile for the products must be defined in such a way that production is also possible in Switzerland. They are also investigating whether it might not be possible to print stamps and telephone directories themselves.
SBB has handed over the decision on where Via will be printed to a communications agency. The contract will run for another three years. It is uncertain whether Swiss printers will be selected after that, because the contract has to be put out to international tender: The contract must be put out to international tender.
The Viscom industry association has a somewhat strained relationship with Swiss Post. The federal company is offering more and more complete solutions in which it not only takes care of transport but also printing - for example, serial letters. In doing so, Swiss Post grants customers discounts of up to 50 percent. "This is forcing our companies out of the market," says Viscom Director Thomas Gsponer to the Switzerland at the weekend. Swiss Post puts the printing services out to tender and awards them to the company with the most favorable offer - which further fuels the already fierce price competition.
Gsponer and Müri now want to work with Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer to examine how the federal administration can be obliged to award printing contracts in Switzerland. This will only work if the federal government's procurement policy is based on economic criteria and not purely financial ones.
Together with the campaign, the "Printed in Switzerland" label will also be made known to a broad public. This label is intended to stand for the advantages of Swiss printing services.
Those responsible at Rivella, Coop, Ragusa, Mobiliar, Raiffeisen and Victorinox have long since understood that the pure production costs for printed matter are not the main reason why a marketing budget is perceived as too expensive, Viscom said in a statement. They know, they said, that printed matter should not be purchased cheaply, but according to need. Instead of purchasing cheaply produced large print runs abroad, the majority of which have to be disposed of after one year, the companies mentioned prefer to have small, but always up-to-date print runs produced at shorter intervals. Local or regional print partners could cover their demand for print products tailored to their needs at any time.
The companies also appreciated the fact that Swiss print service providers train young professionals to a high degree and thus make an important contribution to the national economy. "Printed in Switzerland" has nothing to do with homeland security. Rather, responsible, forward-looking and high-performance partners are benefiting from each other here.
"Printed in Switzerland"
"Printed in Switzerland" is the seal of quality and origin for printed matter from Switzerland. The label was developed under the auspices of Viscom and is available to the graphic arts industry for free use. With the label, customers and manufacturers show their support for printed matter from Switzerland. Through the "Switzerland" quality brand, the label stands for premium products, manufactured to the highest standards. In this way, jobs in SMEs and in industrial companies are to be sustainably promoted and supported.
Viscom, the employers' and entrepreneurs' association for the graphic arts industry in Switzerland, has around 750 companies as members.
As in the two previous years, both domestic and foreign demand fell. This means that the real value added level of the graphic arts industry has fallen by more than 30 percent since the turn of the millennium, the Swiss Association for Visual Communication Viscom announced on Wednesday. Structural changes in the industry, weak demand from abroad and the strong Swiss franc have all taken their toll on the graphic arts industry.
"It is no secret that the industry is undergoing a powerful structural adjustment process," Viscom Director Thomas Gsponer told the media in Zurich. The competition of printed products from the Internet or mobile media is great, he said. "There is less printing in Switzerland." In addition, there is enormous pressure from abroad, where printing is much cheaper. Imports of printed products have risen massively, he said. (SDA)
In contrast to the first brochure, which only provided an overview of the individual topics, the "Environmental Cookbook for the Graphic Arts Industry" , with its numerous references, overviews and practical tips, aims to enable graphic arts companies to take the areas of environment and sustainability into their own hands.
The "Environmental Cookbook for the Graphic Arts Industry" is divided into five chapters: Environmentally Relevant Areas of a Print Shop, Paper, Energy Efficiency, Climate-Neutral Printing, Environmental Management Systems. Readers learn about all of today's environmental labels and how an FSC certification process must be set up in the company. After reading this, they will know where it makes the most sense to implement energy efficiency measures, as well as how to save a lot of money with optimized electricity procurement. In addition, graphic companies will be given important arguments to better sell themselves and their industry to customers in terms of environmental and sustainability issues. Did you know, for example, that the European forest is increasing by four times the area of London every year, or that an iPad as a teaching aid has a lower environmental impact than printed textbooks only after the sixtieth textbook?
The "Environmental Cookbook for the Graphic Arts Industry" is aimed at company owners, business managers, those responsible for the environment and sustainability, but also anyone in the industry who is interested in the subject. It is a compact standard work that has not previously existed in this form in Switzerland and, according to the press release, belongs in every graphic arts company.
"Viscom Environmental Cookbook for the Graphics Industry".
Publishing House Viscom, Bern, ISBN 978-3-9523482-5-3
Selling price 65 francs (Viscom members 52 francs)
78 pages, wire-o-bound; available at Viscom.ch and in bookstores.
Extending working hours and reducing nighttime bonuses are not solutions to the crisis in the graphic arts industry - not even if they are tied up in a pre-Christmas package by Viscom. Syndicom writes this in a press communiqué. The conference participants would fear that the possibility of introducing the 42-hour week in all graphic companies except newspaper printers would set in motion a downward spiral that would endanger hundreds of jobs. 3 weeks of free work for some and layoffs for others is not a prospect, the unions added.
Four years ago, he said, concessions had already been made on night surcharges. Now enough is enough. However, the Gav negotiations are on the right track, with no concessions on night bonuses and weekly working hours.
The industry conference renews the offer to Viscom to extend the current CLA and unanimously calls on the association to resume CLA negotiations.
In September, the employers' association had announced that it would push through longer working hours, reduced bonuses and the waiving of detailed minimum wages in the CLA negotiations (Werbewoche.ch reported). He cited the critical situation in the industry as the reason.
]]>According to Viscom, the negotiations for a new Gav in the graphic arts industry, which begin on September 20, 2012, must lead to a strengthening of the individual companies' room for maneuver and their own responsibility. The employers' association of the graphic arts industry is calling for a future-oriented adjustment of the overly costly collective labor agreement. According to Viscom, added value cannot be distributed in advance and a start of the cost spiral would trigger catastrophic employment consequences in the industry. The principle of annual wage adjustments at company level, which has been established in the industry for eight years, is working, he said. The companies are aware of their responsibility towards their employees.
According to Viscom, the new CBA must strengthen the companies' room for maneuver, especially since their financial and earnings power varies greatly from company to company. A detailed fixing of minimum wages should be dispensed with. Viscom is against a general increase in minimum wages of 200 francs per month, as demanded by the unions.
New 42-hour week
Viscom is also calling for a move away from the 40-hour week and an increase to 42 hours. The 40-hour week threatens growth and employment in the graphic arts industry. The benchmarks for annual working hours fixed during the last CLA negotiations are proving to be too rigid and must be broken up in line with other industries. Annual working hours must be made more flexible, as in other sectors.
According to Viscom, the compensation for night and shift work of 70 percent is also unsustainable in a national industry comparison and international benchmark. In the interests of Switzerland as a workplace, Viscom is therefore calling for surcharges of 25 percent for night and shift work.
Large companies such as Migros or SBB, which outsource printing jobs to cheaper foreign countries, are partly to blame for the loss of valuable jobs in the Swiss graphic arts industry. Syndicom wrote this in a press release on Saturday. It is absurd that the large and financially strong media publishers Tamedia, NZZ and Ringier or Presses Centrales PCL in Renens are also calling into question job security in Swiss print shops by outsourcing the printing of their own products to neighboring countries.
The GIV industry conference firmly rejects the attack by the employers' association Viscom, which is radically calling into question important achievements of the collective labor agreement in the upcoming CLA negotiations, the statement continues. In this context, it is particularly absurd that the large and financially strong media publishers Tamedia, NZZ and Ringier or Presses Centrales SA (PCL) in Renens are also taking part in this "arms race" by outsourcing the printing of their own products to neighboring countries, thus further calling into question job security in Swiss print shops. Correct minimum wages would also be of increasing importance in the graphic arts industry, not least in the peripheral regions and for apprenticeship graduates. Instead of "detailed fixing of minimum wages" in order to strengthen "entrepreneurial room for maneuver," there should no longer be an hourly wage below 22 Swiss francs in the graphic arts industry, said Syndicom. Viscom mocks all night and shift workers by claiming that the "excessive regime of compensation for work at night and on Sundays and holidays" offers "false incentives" and weakens "the competitiveness of the industry." Working at unscheduled hours results in serious restrictions on the social life of employees.
Therefore, the industry conference demands: No further reduction of night, Sunday and holiday surcharges. The GIV industry conference is well aware of the difficult conditions for Swiss print shops, the statement continues. However, instead of stirring up social tensions in the industry and in the companies, as Viscom's provocative attack on the CLA is attempting to do, the delegates from Swiss print shops are ensuring that the situation is calmed down. They called on the Viscom employers' association to stick to the results of the last negotiations: The current CLA will be renewed without any cuts - at the same time, it must be declared valid for the entire industry by becoming generally binding".
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Twelve subjects refer to the high print runs of various printed matter, as Basel West writes in a statement. Most Swiss daily newspapers participate in the campaign and publish the advertisements, which are available in various sizes and also as fountain pens.
Responsible at the Swiss Association for Visual Communication Viscom, Bern: Thomas Gsponer (Director), Beat Kneubühler (Communications), Marco Imboden (Die Post). Responsible at Basel West Corporate Communications: Albin Kirchhofer (consulting), Markus Siegenthaler (text), Stefan Wengenroth (layout).
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After a slight upturn at the beginning of the year, gross value added in the graphic arts industry in the third quarter was 9% lower than in the previous year and similar to the crisis year 2009. This means that output fell for the second quarter in a row. This was announced by the industry association Viscom on Tuesday on the basis of data from the BAK Basel research institute.
Exports slumped by around 30 percent, while real imports of graphic arts products (excluding newspapers and magazines) rose by 20 percent, helped by the strong Swiss franc. Over the course of the year, however, key customers such as the advertising industry and retailers began to order less.
In August, when the euro was worth just over one franc, things looked particularly bleak. At least the lower limit for the euro-franc exchange rate of 1.20 set by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) at the beginning of September ensured that the generally ruinous price war did not escalate any further, writes Viscom.
]]>Shift work, and in particular regular night work, not only puts a strain on the health of those affected, but also severely restricts participation in social life, Syndicom wrote in a communiqué on Thursday. The CLA for the graphic arts industry guarantees employees in newspaper printing plants until the end of 2011 - in addition to the legally guaranteed time supplement of 10 percent - a supplement of 90 percent in cash for every hour of night work. The abolition of the guarantee for the 90 percent supplement and the forthcoming negotiations for a new CLA for the graphic arts industry next year have prompted Syndicom to collect signatures in newspaper printing plants in recent weeks and launch a campaign to defend this supplement for night work. By signing the petition "We work at night so that employers can sleep well!", 660 people affected by night work clearly expressed that the current supplements for their work at non-standard hours must not be touched.
"Syndicom draws the attention of newspaper printing companies to the fact that they are hardly competing with foreign printers," the communiqué continues. Syndicom is therefore demanding that the Viscom employers' association and its member companies continue to pay the night surcharge of 90 percent for employees in newspaper printing plants in 2012 and in the future.