Pierre-Yves Maillard, president of the USS and advisor to the States (VD/PS). image: watson
The president of the Swiss Union Union (USS) and advisor to the Vaudois Socialist States Pierre-Yves Maillard reacts to customs duties imposed by the United States on Switzerland and decides on the feared consequences in terms of employment.
12.08.2025, 05:3512.08.2025, 05:35
How, at the Union Union Suisse (USS), did you react to Donald Trump’s decision to tax Swiss imports in the United States 39%?
Pierre-Yves Maillard: Like everyone, we reacted without understanding the logic behind this decision and with concern about the consequences for industrial jobs in Switzerland.
What do you set up at the USS to respond to this great concern?
Long before the announcement of August 1, industry social partners, the Unia union and the SWISSMEM employers’ organization agreed to request an extension to two years of partial unemployment together, which requires a modification of the law, therefore a decision of the Parliament. I resumed this proposal and submitted it to the Health-Social Commission of the Council of States, which followed it. We hope for a final decision of the Parliament at the fall session. The crisis in the German automotive sector and its repercussions on Swiss subcontractors now extends with the crisis of customs prices.
“This justifies that the authorized duration of technical unemployment, the RHT, be carried 18 to 24 months”
Does the head of the Federal Economy Department, Guy Parmelin, agree with this measure?
It was not in the spring, but I expect the Federal Council to change my mind on this point, at least I hope.
The 24 months of technical unemployment, also says partial unemployment, would they come into force now?
Companies that will have reached 18 months at the end of 2025 may see the measurement being extended by six months. But companies that will enter into technical technical in the coming weeks will have two years ahead of them.
Outside the COVID period, is this the first time in your parliamentary and union experience that you have faced with such a crisis?
No. In January 2015, the end of the Swiss franc floor rate had strong repercussions throughout Swiss industry, since the franc increased around 16% in one day, the Swiss Stock Exchange losing more than 8%.
“At the time, the shock had affected all Swiss exports and not only the 20% of them that go to the United States, as is the case today”
How did you do at the time in the face of the increase in exports due to the fortified franc?
At the time, the technical unemployment mechanism had worked. Patrons in isolation had made decisions with which we did not agree, such as some working time. The fact remains that Switzerland, at the time, when we could really fear the worst, had managed to overcome this crisis. This is why, at USS, we wish to react to the decision of American customs duties without blackening the table too much.
“You have to be careful not to fall into disaster. We must think about means of supporting industry ”
What means for example?
Support for small and medium -sized enterprises that export to the USA and need legal and technical advice to understand how to avoid these arbitrary taxes, for example. We can also cite the reduction in the cost of electrical energy, which weighs heavily in industrial production. At the end of 2024, the Parliament urgently reached an agreement on this point which contributed to the rescue of the foundries of Gerlafingen and Swiss Steel in Emmenbrücke. This is why it is important to keep control over the electricity sector.
Based on the principle that the concern of business leaders is to avoid as much as possible, could wages are a solution?
No, we have no intention of negotiating downward wages. Because wages, on the final cost of the product, in the industry, weigh only 30% to 40%. In other words, by reasoning by the absurd, even the completely free work would often not even compensate for the tax at 39%. No, the drop in wages is an dead end. It would also be counterproductive
For what?
Because the competence of staff in the fields of mechanics, machine tools and watchmaking is a rare resource. Jobs in these sectors are more and more qualified. While a problem of attractiveness of these jobs with young people sometimes, reducing wages would send a very bad message. In the current situation, it is rather necessary to give confidence.
To do everything, do you prefer dismissals to wage reductions?
We refuse to enter into such alternatives. When a business is in danger and it is forced to make difficult decisions, unions negotiate and look at what it is possible to do. But our reasoning is never to say “rather layoffs than salary reductions”.
“We must see that these 39% of arbitrary customs duties testify, in a way, the success of our businesses”
This means that they do good products and that you have to do everything to keep training and employment that allow quality and innovation. It is on these assets that we must permanently work. And then, perhaps in a month, export taxes to the United States will have been reduced or deleted. The Federal Council must be encouraged to continue discussions with the Americans.
Is USS as much attentive to the future of the Pharma in Switzerland as it is not for the machine and watchmaking sector?
For us it is the jobs and the employees who count. We do not hierarchy between the branches. What matters is to defend industrial know-how and good income for tens of thousands of employees.
Given, that said, is the unpredictable side of the United States, not time, not to throw yourself into the arms of Europe, but to calmly welcome bilateral III with the European Union, on which the people will certainly have the last word?
We support the big agreement on free movement and access to the European internal market released from this new round of negotiations between Switzerland and the EU, provided that it is completed with the 14 measures that the Federal Council presented to better protect wages. But parliament must not unravel wage protection measures.
“To which we cannot join, on the other hand, it is on the agreement on electricity, which requires complete liberalization of the electric market”
In other words, a loss of control of this resource. For us, it would be a disaster. This agreement on electricity is not legally linked to others according to the Federal Council.
Do you count on the trauma of American customs duties to obtain satisfaction?
We will see if the employers’ organizations support the 14 wage protection measures as a whole, as requested by the Federal Council. This would show that they are up to the severity of the situation.
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