The government austerity plan, designed to cut the budget deficit to 2.8% of gross domestic product in 2013, includes freezing public sector wages, capping recruitment and privatising several public companies. In response, the public transport workers joined postal workers, who on Monday 26 April started a strike set to continue until May 7. "We question whether it should be the workers who pay for this crisis. We don't think it should be, it cannot only be the workers who pay," said Manuel Leal, spokesman for the Fedtrans transport union. According to the unions involved, some 20,000 workers took strike action from 26 to 28 April at 16 public transport companies affecting around one million passengers. Parliament administration workers started their strike on Wednesday 28 April, whereas truckers' unions plan a walkout in May.
English: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE63Q1P720100427 via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Portugal
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Postal workers have voted to accept a deal on pay, hours and conditions, ending the long-running Royal Mail dispute. In October 2009, postal workers staged a series of strikes in a bitter row over job losses and working conditions. On 27 April, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) announced its members backed the agreement by two to one. The agreement includes a three-year wage rise worth 6.9%, while further payments will accompany the phased introduction of change in the workplace. The working week will reduce by one hour with no loss of pay. Job security guarantees include full-time staff making up at least 75% of the workforce. CWU stated over the next three years, modern machinery and improved operational methods will be introduced and a "culture of co-operation" will see the union fully involved with the phasing in of each stage. Dave Ward, CWU's deputy General Secretary, commented: "The deal recognises the importance of staff in successfully implementing change and rewarding people for the work" (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 2 October 2009).
English: http://www.cwu.org/royal-mail-dispute.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/apr/27/royal-mail-postal-workers
The labour dispute in the food industry continued. On Monday 26 April, the Finnish Food Workers' Union (SEL) rejected a mediation proposal put forward by National Conciliator Esa Lonka. The union claimed the proposal lacked crucial improvements and undermined benefits. ETL, the employers' association, approved the proposal and began a lockout affecting around 18,000 union workers at 235 establishments, to continue until Wednesday 28 April. However,. less than two hours after it began ETL surprisingly announced that the lockout would end at 10 pm Tuesday 27. During that time, workers will not receive pay. Now the union argues that the management cannot unilaterally change the end of the lockout without consulting the union. The two sides are negotiating the lockout's impact on annual leave and holiday benefits under the national mediator. The owners' side said that it was cutting the lockout short in order to ensure the availability of groceries ahead of the May Day holiday weekend. It was also reacting to the union's announcement of more rolling strikes in May. Union members have already staged two strikes during the dispute, and are planning a major one beginning May 11.
English: http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/04/food_industry_negotiators_debate_lockout ...; http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/04/responses_expected_to_mediation_proposal_in ... via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Finland
The German Food and Allied Workers (NGG) have secured an agreement with Coca-Cola's German bottler Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetraenke AG (CCEAG) that provides extensive guarantees on job security. CCEAG, with 11,000 employees, is Germany's largest soft drink producer. The new agreement, valid through the end of 2012, was signed at the end of several months of collective bargaining and membership mobilization culminating in a marathon 4 days and nights of negotiations and threatened warning strikes. The agreement provides for a commitment to no future outsourcing of production, services or sales; no operational layoffs for NGG members during the agreement, with any production job transfers between production sites resulting from overcapacity limited to the same sales region; the distribution fleet to be kept within the parent company; all trainees to be retained for at least 12 months following the end of the training period. The existing framework agreement regulating working time (37.5 hour week), vacation and vacation allowances is preserved, while the company can, in response to market fluctuations, extend the workweek to 48 hours. Weekend work is to remain the exception. The agreement also gives a modest annual wage increase with compensation for inflation.
English: http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/344; http://www.iuf.org/drupal/?q=node/306
German: http://www.handelsblatt.com/archiv/coca-cola-tarifvertrag-gibt-garantie .
The government will offer the unions "clarifications" of aspects of the public service pay deal in the last week of April as part of an attempt to rescue the Croke Park agreement. The revelation came after Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen warned that if public sector workers did not sign up to the agreement, it could prompt strikes and industrial unrest which would lead to "lost productivity" and "further job losses." Fresh talks will be attended by the government, the public services committee of the Irish Trades Union Congress (ICTU) and the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) which brokered the deal. Balloting is getting under way among the unions involved but it will be May before the final outcome is known. A number of unions have said that even if there is an overall majority, they will not necessarily be bound by the vote. The latest to take this line is the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT), which is recommending a 'No' vote to its members. Earlier, the SIPTU general union called for some clarification of the agreement but argued for acceptance.
English: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/unions-offered-clarifications-in-new ... http://www.siptu.ie/PressRoom/NewsReleases/Headline/Name,11494,en.html
As of 31 March and with four months' notice, the Board of Directors of Malv Hungarian Airlines has terminated the currently valid collective contract, at the same time authorizing management to initiate negotiating a new agreement. Malv (re-nationalised in February 2010) has put in place a restructuring programme, including raising revenues, further rationalization of costs and flexibiisation of employment more flexible. Malv pilots, affiliated with the Hungarian Airlines Pilots' Association (HUNALPA), have threatened to conduct industrial action following disagreement over labour contract negotiations. No date has yet been specified for the strike.
English: M t Komiljovics, union correspondent
In 2009 women on average earned 13% less than men, according to a recent salary survey of the Workania jobsite. According to the survey the gender pay gap was 8% for starting employees, reaching 16 % for those employees with at least 6 years professional experience. With 27% the largest gap was found for top level managers. Workania stressed that among public servants the gap was relatively small, for example 9 % for policemen and 5 % for teachers. Interestingly, female doctors earned on average 3 % more than their male colleagues. In 2009, 82,000 employees took part in the survey.
English: M t Komiljovics, union correspondent
Border guards have cancelled an announced two-day strike after reaching a compromise deal with the employer. The new contract covers 2.5 years. Salary levels for the second year will be negotiated in January 2011. Markku Pietikinen, the chief shop steward of the Border Guard Union, says workers found the new terms tolerable.
English: http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/04/border_guards_cancel_threatened_strike_1628149.html via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Finland
As part of the widespread protest in the country's public service against planned job cuts felt to be dictates from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), unionists in education organised a one-day general strike on 22 April. The education unions demand the integration of the amendments proposed by the union federations into the education law, the removal of plans to dismiss 15,000 employees, the amendment of the law on unified salaries by including the teaching staff in the upper part of the salary grid, the granting of two 10% hikes for hard working conditions, and the enforcement of the court rulings through which employees won their rights. Union leaders emphasized that the one-day strike was just a warning. "If our demands will not be met, we will hold a national strike for an unlimited period starting the first half of June," Marius Nistor of the Spiru Haret union told a press agency.
English: http://www.financiarul.ro/2010/04/23/hundreds-of-teachers-are-on-general ... http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/22/world/international-uk-romania-strike.html via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Romania
The FNV Bondgenoten union and European Container Terminals (ECT), subsidiary of Hongkong-based Hutchison Whampoa with its main container-handling facilities in the Rotterdam port, have reached a basic accord for a collective agreement. The agreement covers 2,400 employees and 3.5 years, from 1 April 2009 to 1 October 2012. It includes a wage increase of 1.42% backdated 1 April 2009, increases for 2010 and 2011 of 1% each, and an increase of the basic monthly wage of Euro 20 by 1 May 2012. Pension rights will be lifted considerably, the employer will fully take over sickness insurance fees, and improvements in shop-floor safety have been agreed. Further, a joint study will be undertaken on the impact of the Second Maas Plain, the major Rotterdam port expansion under way, on incomes and job security of port workers, as many in the ECT workforce are concerned about the over-capacity effects of this expansion. Niek Stam, FNV Bondgenoten officer, comments: "It took nine negotiation rounds and a number of short strikes, but in the end the result is satisfying." ECT kept out of a sectoral agreement, which was an earlier union demand. The deadline for the membership ballot is the end of May.
Dutch: De Volkskrant, 22 April 2010; http://www.fnvbondgenoten.nl/branches_bedrijven/branches/vervoer/havens/eindelijk_ .