700 Swiss jobs rescued at Adtranz

Months of protest finally yielded results for Swiss Adtranz workers. Keystone / Lukas Lehmann

About 700 jobs threatened by the planned closure of two Adtranz plants in Switzerland have been saved. The rail technology group said it had reached an agreement with Dutch investors to keep the factories open.

Adtranz announced on Friday that it had signed an accord with Dutch investment and redevelopment group, Business Creation, to keep the plants open and to try and save all jobs at the sites.

It said the actual number of jobs would depend on the size of contracts obtained from the Swiss Federal Railways.

Under the deal, Business Creation will take over the factories at Zurich and Pratteln, near Basel, which will start operations under a new name, Railtech. Since 1992, Business Creation has rescued or created 38,000 jobs worldwide.

Adtranz sparked protests and widespread outrage in Switzerland when it announced its decision to shut down the plants last November.

The accord announced on Friday will be seen as the fruit of intensive efforts by workers at the plants and by the authorities in Zurich and Basel over the past year to save the plants from closure.

swissinfo with agencies