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9 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 31/2001
The world's pharmaceutical and allied workers' unions today issued a strong protest over plans by multinational Roche to cut 3,000 jobs.
Roche workers in the US, Britain and Switzerland will be hit particularly hard by the dismissals. Announced last night, the cutbacks have already caused protest demonstrations in Basle, Switzerland. Roche currently employs some 65,000 people worldwide, of which about 41,000 are in the pharmaceutical sector.
Roche's decision is "one more example of an economic logic that prescribes the maximisation of profits, to the greater good of shareholders and the detriment of wage-earners." So says the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) in an emergency resolution adopted by its Executive in Brussels today.
The ICEM denounces "this short-term economic vision which seeks to sacrifice the interests of employees and of the community in order to achieve immediate high returns on capital." It encourages its affiliated unions to "organise at the international level, so as to resist these job cuts and remind Roche of its social responsibilities."
Roche workers in the US, Britain and Switzerland will be hit particularly hard by the dismissals. Announced last night, the cutbacks have already caused protest demonstrations in Basle, Switzerland. Roche currently employs some 65,000 people worldwide, of which about 41,000 are in the pharmaceutical sector.
Roche's decision is "one more example of an economic logic that prescribes the maximisation of profits, to the greater good of shareholders and the detriment of wage-earners." So says the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) in an emergency resolution adopted by its Executive in Brussels today.
The ICEM denounces "this short-term economic vision which seeks to sacrifice the interests of employees and of the community in order to achieve immediate high returns on capital." It encourages its affiliated unions to "organise at the international level, so as to resist these job cuts and remind Roche of its social responsibilities."