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/ 06.21.2010 2:00PM
French Media Reports Employee Protest of Grass Valley Sale
PARIS: French employees of
Thomson Grass Valley are
protesting the divestment of the division, according to French media
outlets. Ouest
France said this morning that nearly 200 employees were on
strike at
the Rennes facility, where production was shut down. Technicolor, the
post-reorganization name for Thomson, is said to have around 400
employees in
Rennes.
“The strikers have stopped work while the central works council has to
address,
tomorrow and Wednesday, the issue of redundancy payments or grants for
training. Management of Grass Valley has planned to eliminate 625
positions worldwide, including 182 in Rennes,”
Ouest
said.
l’Humanite
reported that 300 French Grass Valley employees demonstrated June 3
against the
sale of the division. They were said to rally outside of the
headquarters of
France Television’s TF1, a company client. “Without Grass Valley, we can
no
longer maintain them,” said Jean-Pierre Ottavi, a union representative
at
Technicolor.
Grass Valley was put up for sale in February of ’09 when Thomson
announced
it would likely breach its loan covenants. The division posted a 31
percent
decline in revenues between 2008 and 2009, generating a loss of around
$17
million last year. Thomson completed its restructuring early this year
and
became Technicolor. Having failed to attract a buyer for Grass Valley as
of
March, Technicolor announced it would cut one-fourth of the work
force--625
jobs worldwide.
At Technicolor’s general meeting held in Paris last week, CEO Frederic
Rose
said that the divestiture of Grass Valley was still in progress. “The
turnover
of Grass Valley was stable in Q110 compared with Q109,”
Boursier
quoted him as saying.
Technicolor posted
revenues
of €691 million for the quarter ending March 31, 2010, down 24.4 percent
at
current currency and down 25 percent at constant currency compared to Q1
2009.
Revenues excluded the Grass Valley, PRN and Screenvision businesses, all
of
which are up for sale.
--
Deborah D. McAdams
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