BASEL – A thousand people demonstrated today in Basel against mass layoffs, especially at Novartis. Fighting measures are envisaged against the pharmaceutical group, which last Tuesday communicated the suppression of 2,000 jobs, of which 1,100 in Switzerland.
The demonstration in Basel was promoted by the union Unia, which this week has already launched a petition against the restructuring of Novartis. The text requires that before resorting to layoffs, Novartis renounce the distribution of bonuses to executives and dividends to shareholders. In addition to Novartis, the Huntsman group also announced drastic headcount cuts this month. The US chemical group plans to cut around 680 jobs in Switzerland, most of them in Basel.
In the pharmaceutical industry, questioning the peace of work was taboo, said Corrado Pardini, a member of the Unia board and a socialist national councilor. The layoffs announced by Novartis are "an unacceptable scandal" and have broken the taboo. The pharmaceutical giant wants to cut 760 jobs in Basel and 320 in Nyon. Protest breaks are expected at the Nyon factory next week and other measures of struggle will be applied in Basel, Pardini added. Unia foresees severe conflicts in the coming weeks and months.
The fact that Novartis has fired hundreds of people while making billionaire profits and distributing bonuses of millions of francs to its managers has been harshly criticized by several quarters. Novartis must reverse its decision, said Daniel Lampart [in the picture], chief economist of the Swiss Trade Union (USS). Instead of overpaid managers, we need bosses with reasonable salaries who carry out reasonable politics. Novartis doesn't care about its social responsibilities. Not even the Basel government understands the decision to fire, underlined Finance Director Eva Herzog.
Unia intends to fight not only against job losses, but also for a better collective labor agreement (CLA) in the Basel chemical and pharmaceutical industry. The current CCL will expire on April 30 next year.
A hundred people also demonstrated in Nyon, at the headquarters of the site that Novartis intends to close and another 50 people gathered in front of the home of the chairman of the board of directors, Daniel Vasella, in Risch ZG. The demonstration, organized by the Young Socialists, went without incident.
News dated 10/29/2011 – NEW SWISS
