23 January, 2012
ICEM’s Swiss affiliate UNIA is celebrating a great success in its campaign to save the 320 jobs at the pharmaceutical giant Novartis. The decision to reverse a plant closure at the Prangin production site near Nyon was announced on 17 January, following an extremely strong campaign effort that dated to last November.
The 17 January announcement included a pledge to protect jobs at the site in the long term. Job cuts at Novartis in neighbouring Nyon have also been reversed.
The ICEM salutes a spirited campaign of strikes, mass mobilisations and mass support from the local public and area politicians in Canton Vaud, which culminated in bad press and huge pressure on Novartis management to reverse its decision. The planned closures were undeniably based on corporate greed as profits were huge, and the facilities were widely regarded as top quality.
ICEM marched with UNIA colleagues on several demonstrations, with the Nyon-based UNI Global Union.
Staff at the Prangins facility took the concession of increasing weekly work hours from 37.5 to 40 in negotiations.
Management’s shock decision to close – announced at a 25 October press conference – significant sections of the Nyon and Basle plants came only weeks after Novartis showed third quarter net sales up 18% to US$14.84 billion from US$12.58 billion in the same period in 2010. Net income increased 7% to US$2.49 billion, third quarter 2011, from US$2.32 billion in the quarter, 2010.
Novartis had planned to cut 2,000 jobs internationally, with 760 at its Basle headquarters and 320 in Nyon. Job cuts were greatly reduced at Basle as well, with only a third of the initially planned job cuts in Basle to now occur.
It was predicted 2,000 related jobs in Nyon would go if the company closed the plant, ending over 90 years of drug production in Nyon.
UNIA’s role in mobilising the support of local and federal politicians in the process was important, especially since a major factor in the decision to cut Swiss jobs was a retort at Swiss authorities’ price-cutting of pharmaceutical drugs.
Novartis Chief Executive Daniel Vasella is the highest paid person in Switzerland, with an annual salary of CHF 40 million.