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30% of customers at Reconvilier plant lost owing to strike - 112 redundancies unavoidable - Company committed to location and preserving remaining jobs The strike at the Swissmetal works in Reconvilier has seen customer numbers at that location fall by around 30%. Consequently, as signalled back in February, the loss of 112 jobs at Reconvilier has become an economic necessity. Those employees affected by the redundancies have been informed, effective 23 March. In addition, productivity at the plant is being massively reduced by a go-slow-style attitude to work. Around 60 members of the workforce of 320 have reported in sick. Output is around 50% lower than usual, while costs continue to be incurred in full. In spite of this unsatisfactory situation, the Swissmetal Board of Directors has reaffirmed its determination not to close the plant and to preserve the approximately 200 remaining positions. There will be no further job loss announcements. However, the company is counting on the readiness of the remaining workforce to return to its normal pace of work. In this context, Swissmetal is also pinning its hopes on the flexibility offered by Canton Berne during the mediation talks in terms of unemployment insurance with respect to short-time work and other transitional solutions. If the Reconvilier site quickly manages to regain credibility among its client base and to win back customers, the company hopes to be able to create new jobs again in future.
Bids to buy plant under consideration Swissmetal is to enter into immediate negotiations with parties interested in buying the plant. A basic decision concerning the sale of parts of the site will be taken by Tuesday, 28 March 2006. However, the expressions of interest received are based partly on unrealistic assumptions. Swissmetal will certainly not sell off its strategic core operations.
Swissmetal once more appeals to the good judgement of all concerned to do their utmost to save the Reconvilier site.
Swissmetal reiterates that, prior to the wildcat strike of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />25 January 2006, it never at any time intended to call the existence of the Reconvilier plant into question. Prior to the strike, the company had intended to base 240 industrial jobs at the Reconvilier site by 2010. Even today, Swissmetal remains firmly convinced that if all the parties involved behave in a constructive manner, a large part of the damage caused by this latest strike can be made good and between 150 and 200 jobs can be provided at Reconvilier in the long-term.
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