About 15,000 workers at indebted Spanish media group Prisa (PRS.MC), including journalists at bestselling newspaper El Pais and pay-TV platform Digital+, are to strike this month to protest against job cuts.
Prisa, which took out loans to take full control of its pay-TV group Sogecable just before the global crisis hit, has sold assets and a majority stake to the shareholders of U.S. fund Liberty Acquisition Group in an attempt to pay off debts.
"The strike was called last night. The plan is that on April 15 neither El Pais nor any other newspaper in the group will be published, nor will any (of Prisa's) TV channels be broadcast," a union representative told Reuters.
Spanish media groups were badly hit by sluggish advertising as the economy struggled to emerge from its worst recession in half a century, with one in five Spanish workers without a job.
Prisa has closed Spanish business news channel CNN+ and said it would make 2,500 job cuts, 18 percent of its workforce.
Last month, unions marched through the Spanish capital Madrid in protest against the lay-offs in the left-leaning media group.
Workers at the group's audiovisual division, Prisa TV, will also take part in six days of limited strikes, culminating in all workers walking out for a whole day, the union representative said.
Prisa shares were little changed at 1050 GMT, trading around 2 euros.
Source: https://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/129360/20110401/prisa-workers-call-strike-in-spain-over-job-cuts.htm
