The July 9, 2016 edition of "L'Equipe" -

BPI / Shutterstock / SIPA

Whistle (temporary) for the strike at L'Equipe.

After fourteen days of social movement followed by a majority of employees, the newspaper returns to the kiosks from this Saturday and the magazine is available in digital version for its subscribers.

But the employees decided to suspend (and only suspend) their movement because of some progress obtained.

The calls "Quickly come back to the team" had multiplied this week in letters of support signed by nearly 300 athletes and personalities, not to mention the many testimonials on social networks from regular readers of the sports daily.

A momentum greeted by the inter-union which thanks "all the readers, champions, personalities of the arts, the media or politics, who have shown their support and their attachment to our titles in recent days", as well as "the donors (... ) which helped fund a solidarity fund and keep the movement going.

"

The fight is not over

Because at the end, the intersyndicale (SNJ, SNJ-CGT, UFICT-CGT, SGLCE-CGT) won some progress with management.

Including "the guarantee of avoiding any forced departure in three of the most exposed categories (of jobs, Editor's note)", namely model makers, iconographers and photographers, which represents a total of eleven positions.

But uncertainty remains on possible forced departures in other categories of staff, hence the warning of the unions: the strike, historic by its duration, is pending but "the movement continues".

"If the management does everything it can to offer a solution in the event that the number of voluntary departures is insufficient at the end of the application period", the union representatives "will stop this strike".

"Otherwise", the inter-union warns that it "will relaunch it so that management meets its commitments."

Fear of diminished cover

At the origin of the movement, a plan to safeguard employment (PSE) providing for the elimination of around fifty positions, including 47 of journalists, within SAS L'Equipe (the daily, the magazine,

Vélo Magazine

and the weekly

France Football

, in the process of becoming a monthly) which employs 350 people.

At the same time, 12 job creations are planned to strengthen the Internet offer.

With this plan, management expects a saving of 5 million euros and intends to avoid 6 million losses in 2021, in a context of falling paper sales aggravated by the health crisis and the end of sports competitions in spring 2020. But side unions and employees, the scale of these workforce reductions worries and foreshadows, according to them, less coverage of Ligue 1, rugby or Olympic disciplines.

Conditions of departure deemed insufficient to promote voluntary departures had also ignited the powder.

On this point, the intersyndicale indicates that it has negotiated better proposals with management, namely the increase "from 0.5 to 0.9 months' salary per year of seniority beyond 15 years for journalists", the "passage from 12 to 15 months' salary for the retirement ceiling" or the "extension of redeployment leave for certain categories".

Finally, certain categories of employees will be merged "to avoid suffered layoffs", add the unions who hope to avoid any dismissal.

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  • Media

  • The team

  • Strike

  • Social movement

  • Newspaper