Le Dauphiné Libération, Le Progrès, Les DNA… Call for a strike in the nine newspapers of the Ebra group

Employees of the nine regional newspapers of the Ebra press group, owned by Crédit Mutuel, are called to strike on Friday against a plan to cut jobs and the increased use of artificial intelligence (AI), AFP learned on Wednesday from union sources. Ebra (East Burgundy Rhône-Alpes) publishes Le Dauphiné Libération (Grenoble), Le Bien public (Dijon), Le Journal de Saône-et-Loire (Chalon-sur-Saône), Le Progrès (Lyon), L'Est republican (Nancy), Le Républicain lorrain (Metz), Vosges Matin (Épinal), L'Alsace (Mulhouse) and Latest news from Alsace (Strasbourg), titles which cover a total of 23 departments.

“This will be the first time that there will be a strike on the same day, and it is also the first time that there is a plan of this magnitude, which affects all employees,” noted Delphine Banas, SNJ-CGT union delegate at Républicain Lorrain. The Ebra group, whose number sales and subscriptions have been halved in ten years, announced at the end of June a voluntary departure plan targeting up to 400 positions among its approximately 3,200 employees.

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Automating tasks using AI tools

Like most press titles, its newspapers are suffering the erosion of their print circulation as well as the decline in their advertising revenue. The group's operational loss exceeded 10 million euros in 2025, underlines management, although, point out the unions, the parent company Crédit Mutuel generated a net profit of 4.8 billion. Management, which told AFP on Wednesday that it had “taken note of this call for strike, launched by some of the union organizations”, intends to compensate for these workforce reductions by automating tasks, particularly editing, using AI tools.

“Introducing massively into our content information tinkered with by artificial intelligence, which can be spotted in two strokes of a spoon by anyone, is to give arguments to those who contest the fundamental role of the traditional press,” commented the National Union of Journalists (SNJ) of L’Est Republican and Vosges Matin in a press release. “The Group's securities management remains available and available to discuss with staff representatives until the end” of the information-consultation procedure, which must end at the end of November, the Ebra group also indicates.