Radio France paralysed by longest strike in 10 years

Radio France, the country’s main public radio broadcaster, has been paralysed by a strike since March 19 in what is now the longest such action to affect the company in a decade.
 
The company, which is 90 percent state funded through license fees, is in deep financial trouble after it was forced to adopt a projected 2015 budget deficit of 21.3 million euros in January.
 
To make matters worse, French investigative weekly Le Canard Enchainé published an article on March 18 revealing that Radio France’s CEO Mathieu Gallet had spent 100,000 euros renovating his office as part of broader, long-term project to revamp the company’s office building in Paris.
 
Gallet quickly apologised to Radio France’s employees, saying that he should have delayed the renovation, which was approved in 2013 before his arrival at the company. He also said he would fight to ensure that there were no layoffs.
 
His comments, however, did little to reassure unions organising the strike.
 
Officially, the strike is in protest against the outsourcing of jobs, and reforms to production and cleaning services, as well as Radio France’s decision to fire one of its two orchestras as a cost-saving measure
 
Unions organising the work stoppage have also warned against the possibility of mass job cuts, a fear that was exacerbated earlier this week after the company floated the idea of a voluntary redundancy plan for between 200 and 300 positions.
 
So far, negotiations between Radio France’s management and unions have achieved little, other than an agreement to abandon reforms affecting the company’s cleaning services.