Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
Barely in his post for a few weeks, Nestlé's new CEO has quickly taken drastic action. Today the company announced it will cut 16,000 job worldwide.
We will also find out why construction workers have announced a strike, a very rare event in Switzerland, and how much the American government has gained from the tariffs imposed on Swiss imports.
Finally, we follow the sad story of an elderly Swiss-Tunisian citizen imprisoned in Tunisia.
Nestlé’s new CEO, Philipp Navratil, has announced the elimination of 16,000 jobs. The Swiss food multinational has 277,000 employees worldwide, 8,600 of whom are in Switzerland.
About 12,000 positions with managerial functions will be cut and another 4,000 will be eliminated in the areas of production and procurement. The aim is to reduce costs by CHF1 billion by the end of 2027. The cuts will also affect activity in Switzerland, but Navratil, in a video conference with the media, did not specify the extent of domestic job cuts.
Since the beginning of 2022, the shares of the food giant, which are very popular in the investment portfolio of Swiss pension funds, have lost more than 40%, causing billions in stock market value to vanish, according to Le Temps.
Today, however, the quarterly revenue figures surprised on the upside. The announcement of job cuts, seen by investors as a sign of a decisive approach by the new CEO, pushed the stock up sharply at the opening of the Zurich Stock Exchange, writes news agency Keystone-SDA.
How much money has ended up in the coffers of the American government thanks to the increase in tariffs on Swiss imports? The Tages-Anzeiger is trying to answer today, estimating a windfall of about $1 billion since April.
Tariffs on Swiss products accounted for 0.8% of total U.S. customs revenue in the four months from “Liberation Day” (April 2) to July. At this time, the general tariff rate of 10% was still in force.
Since August, the latter has risen to 39% for imports from the Switzerland, one of the highest imposed by the US administration. Although Swiss exports to the United States fell by 31% in August compared to July, the customs revenues they generated are likely to have increased, the Tages-Anzeiger points out. September data is not available due to the ongoing US administration shutdown.
In the meantime, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) has revised downwards its economic forecasts for the Swiss economy, mainly due to US tariffs. “Economic growth is expected to be significantly below average of 1.3% in 2025, followed by a decline of up to 0.9% in 2026,” it said in a statement.
The trial of 81-year-old Swiss-Tunisian Mustapha Djemali opened today in Tunis, a case that, according to Amnesty International, is emblematic of the increasing repression against humanitarian personnel that characterizes Tunisia.
Djemali has been in prison since May 2024 on charges of creating a criminal organisation that allegedly helped the illegal placement of migrants. This is the Tunisian Council for Refugees, an NGO financed almost exclusively by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – for which Djemali worked for 25 years in Geneva – and supported by several European countries.
“We thought it was a mistake, that it would be resolved in two days and that [the Tunisian authorities] would apologize,” his son, Fadhel Djemali, a resident of Geneva, told Le Temps.
A year and a half later, despair reigns. “What continues to shock us is the passivity of Switzerland, as well as that of the UNHCR and the UN,” he says. For its part, the foreign ministry refers to the 81-year-old’s dual citizenship and the “sovereignty of the state of residence” to justify its reticence.
However, the ministry assured Le Temps that Switzerland had “intervened at the highest level with the Tunisian authorities”, the same wording used in response to a recent parliamentary question, but no details were provided on the steps taken.
More than 20,000 construction workers want to go on strike. This is 90% of the people questioned during a vote held at national level in recent weeks organised by the unions.
The crux of the discontent is the lack of agreement on the National Contract for the construction industry, which risks plunging into a situation of contractual vacuum, as has not happened for over a decade. In particular, no agreement was found on working hours. According to the unions Unia and Syna, the Society of Construction Contractors is opposed to working hours compatible with private life.
This can be “up to nine hours of work in the hottest summer months, in addition to the extra hours and travel time from the company to the construction site,” explains Nico Lutz, head of negotiations and member of the Unia Management Committee. It’s no wonder that many people are leaving the profession, he adds.
The first days of protest will begin as early as next week and end mid-November depending on the region.
If employers continue to refuse to find a negotiated solution, a nationwide strike in the sector can be expected in 2026, the unions warn.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
