Friday, July 9, the newspapers The Pyrenees Republic and The Lightning were absent from the newsstands. The reason was a strike at Pyrénées Presse after the announcement of the project to close the press.
The printing plant of Pyrénées Presse, Sud-Ouest group, is indeed threatened with closure by 2023, as part of the national framework agreement PRIM, said in a statement the National Union of Journalists (SNJ).
A plan is underway to develop digital activities and to transfer the Berlanne printing center, which publishes 30,000 hard copies of The Pyrenees Republic and The Lightning reports The Pyrenees Republic.
The newspaper says that this plan comes in the context of a national agreement between newspaper publishers, the government and the book trade unions for the modernization of printing plants in the face of falling sales of paper newspapers.
In their press release, the SNJ elected representatives contest the decision to close the printing plant of Pyrénées Presse which, according to them, is not economically justified, and recall that 17 jobs are directly threatened.
"Our first thought is for the rotativists whose family and professional lives will be turned upside down and sacrificed for any thanks for having participated in the financial health of our company. For some of them, a whole career, the feeling of not having deserved anything and the feeling of a real lack of consideration they said.
The employees of Pyrénées Presse, editorial staff, printers, prepress and administrative staff, met in a general assembly on July 8 and voted by a very large majority for a non-appearance the next day, as well as for a strike, including on the newspaper's Internet site.
They also indicated that other actions could be considered in the future.
