The National Institute of Geographic and Forestry Information (IGN) plans to close its printing plant by 2023 and to outsource the printing of its maps. A decision against which the CGT unions of the IGN are opposed and have launched an online petition. In addition to the loss of jobs, they fear that the publication of paper maps will eventually be stopped in favor of digital maps.
For the CGT, the economic reasons for subcontracting have no reason to exist.
"This production is completely balanced budget-wise. It even allows itself to be profitable, which should not be an absolute criterion since the IGN is a public service. In fact, the management fears a drop in map sales in the coming years and that its margins will decrease. And its answer to maintain them is to subcontract, destroying public jobs said the unions in a statement issued on June 25.
Ultimately, the unions see the elimination of paper cards as inevitable. "The savings (if any) will be only minor and the budgetary impacts will be so strong that soon the decision to stop publishing paper maps will be necessary.»
Rebound in card sales in 2020
Consequences of covid and constraints on foreign travel, IGN hiking paper maps rebounded in 2020 with an increase in online trade order volume of 57% compared to 2019, unions say. A momentum that continues in 2021 with the first half of the year seeing a 29% increase in sales compared to 2019
Specialized in cartography, the IGN is dedicated to the description of the territory and to the elaboration and updating of the inventory of national forest resources. Topographic and road maps represent 90% of the work done by the printing service. These include road atlases, maps of France, topographic road maps, tourist maps, relief maps and posters.
