Journalists at the French newspaper Liberation have voted massively in favour of a strike after management proposals to fire 81 of the 276 staff were announced.
The results were announced almost immediately after the arrival of Laurent Joffrin to head the paper. The decision was made without consultation. At an AG called after the announcement 143 staff voted in favour of a strike beginning on the fourth of December, 110 were in favour of an immediate strike and 10 ballots were blank.
Liberation has been losing money for several years and entered into an unlikely alliance with Edouard de Rothschild in January 2005. In exchange for an investment of 20M euros he was given a 37% stake in the company. This reduced the 36.4% SCPL (Civil society of Liberation employees) so that they no longer had a block vote.
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