Section Agence France-Presse du Syndicat national des journalistes |
SNJ-AFP |
Agence France-Presse Branch of the French National Journalists' Union (SNJ) |
News & Views
|
Caracas: The Unions Re-open Wires Shut down by Management
A delegation of elected delegates and other union officials from the CGT, SNJ, FO, SUD, CFDT, CGC and CFTC have taken the decision to reconnect the communications links between AFP’s Caracas bureau and the company’s data network, which had been cut off on January 1st by management. This action was taken in order to allow local staff, who are occupying the bureau, to continue representing AFP in Venezuela. A badly managed labour conflict, culminating in the CEO’s brutal decision to effectively lock the Caracas staff out of their own office from January 1st, has placed AFP in a situation of complete illegality. The Venezuelan authorities have already imposed several fines on the company for its failures to respect the country’s labour laws. By its action, plus its decision to have the country temporarily covered by journalists working practically on a clandestine basis with respect to the local authorities, AFP’s management has got itself into a bind not only with its own employees but also with the Venezuelan government, thereby compromising the company’s ability to carry out its missions in the region. The CGT, SNJ, FO, SUD, CFDT, CGC and CFTC unions call on all the agency’s journalists to reject the measures taken by management against the Caracas bureau, and to handle the copy that the bureau’s staff transmit over our network. The CGT, SNJ, FO, SUD, CFDT, CGC and CFTC unions further call on management to immediately return to the negotiating table to find a solution in line with both the dignity of staff and with local laws, and which will allow AFP to correctly carry out its mission as a worldwide agency acting in the interests of the general public, as laid down in our statutes. To that end, the CGT, SNJ, FO, SUD, CFDT, CGC and CFTC unions call on the CEO to meet them as soon as possible. Joint AFP Unions (CGT-SNJ-FO-SUD-CFDT-CGC-CFTC) 6 January 2005 |