Collective Bargaining

On 11 April, workers at Renault's Dacia plant in southern Romania returned to work and ended a 19-day strike, after management decided to raise employees' wages by on average 23% in 2008. The Dacia management had initially offered 19%. Dacia is the maker of the Logan model series of cheaper cars developed for emerging markets but which also became a success in western countries. The Logan has played a big part in Renault's bid to boost overall sales in the world and is now made in many countries. The Romanian car workers will receive a pay rise of around 435 lei (Euro 120) a month, on top of their average monthly wage of 1,900 lei (Euro 524). A source close to Renault estimated the total costs of the strike, including lost production, at Euro 50 million. The struggle of the Dacia workers was supported by the European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF). The EMF earlier welcomed the Romanian court's ruling that the Dacia strike action was completely legal.
(English: http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7454748, via http://www.labourstart.org;
http://www.emf-fem.org/press/press_releases/the_struggle_of_dacia_workers_is_the_struggle_of_all_european_workers)

With no progress on pay negotiations, employees of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) took a second day of strike action on 11 April. The PCS trade union has been in a long-running dispute over pay, arguing that coastguard watch assistants have a startingsalary (UKP 12,097 - Euro 15,100) that is little more than the minimum wage. Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, commented: "The strength of feeling amongst dedicated coastguard staff is self evident following the strong support for their first strike. The government needs to reassess in policy of capping pay to avoid unnecessary industrial action and start valuing its own workforce with fair and just pay." The MCA is just one of nine UK government agencies and departments that have faced strike action over pay in recent months.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=256#a3737; http://www.pcs.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=918722)

TheÿIrish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has expressed serious concern at new figures which show that the annual rate of inflation increased to 5% inÿMarch. ICTUÿhas said the rising cost of living will have serious implications forÿpay talks. The warning comes as the latest consumer price index from the Central Statistics Office reveal the annual rate of inflation has increasedÿto 5% during March from 4.8% during February. Two months ago Ireland's inflation rate was down to 4.3% and most forecasters predicted it would ease considerably further throughout the year. Since then that food and energy prices have risen globally and a significant knock on effect on consumer prices has been unavoidable. The new figures show that overall the cost of housing electricity and other fuels has risen by 12.3% in a year, while the overall cost of food and non-alcoholic beverages is up by 9.3%.
(English: http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0410/inflation.html, via http://www.labourstart.org)

The Austrian Metals, textiles and food union (Gewerkschaft Metall-Textil-Nahrung, GMTN) reports the succesful negotiating of a collective agreement for the 22,000 office workers in the construction industry, that runs for one year from 1 May, 2008. Wages will be increased by 3.7% in 2008, and at the end by a further 3.55% from 1 May, 2009. At the same time, the colleagues of the Construction and wood workers' union (Gewerkschaft Bau-Holz, GBH) succeeded to negotiate a wage increase of the same magnitude for 20,000 workers in the wood and sawmill industry. From 1 May 2008, monthly paid wages will rise 3.7%, and all other wages 3.5%. In both industries, a number of improvements for apprentices have been realized. Both agreements lay down increases 0.4-0.6%pts higher than the average pay rise for 2008 agreed thus far in Austria.
(German: http://www.gmtn.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=GMT/Page/GMT_Index&n=GMT_0.a&cid=1206108399566; http://www.bau-holz.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=GBH/Page/GBH_Index&n=GBH_0)
BELGIUM / LUXEMBOURG

On 9 April, workers in 12 countries went to more than 20 offices of Goldman Sachs to point out that Goldman has the opportunity to advance the cause of working women through its private equity ownership of the Danish multinational facilities management giant, ISS. ISS employs more than 300,000 women in over 50 countries- mostly in the part-time and low wage cleaning industry. Goldman recently ran ads profiling its new "10,000 women" program through which it provides for education and other advancement for women in developing countries. UNI's leaflet points out that a global agreement with UNI means progress for more than 300,000 women. ISS has a global agreement with UNI which expires in May, 2008. Discussions for a new agreement have been under way since last spring, but ISS has not yet made a concrete proposal. UNI Property Services unions around the globe aim to achieve an agreement with ISS in which both parties take responsibility for their common interest in raising standards across the markets in which ISS operates.
(English: http://www.union-network.org/UNIFlashes.nsf/By+Date/76E5AF870D6225EFC1257426002C9C3B?OpenDocument)

The ver.di union is recommending to its members that they accept a new offer from the federal and local government employers. Ver.di's collective bargaining committee voted 64-25 in favour of the employers' latest offer, which is a significant improvement both on earlier offers and on the proposals from the arbitration committee. If backed by the ver.di membership, the deal will mean an increase in 2008 of at least Euro 50 a month plus 3.1%. These figures translate into a 7.11% increase for those on the lowest pay scale. The increase in 2009 will be 2.8% plus a Euro 225 lump sum. There will be a 30-minute increase in weekly working time in some areas in the West of the country while weekly working hours will remain at 40 in the East. (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 1 No's 1 and 2).
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=256#a3737;
German: http://tarif-oed.verdi.de/tarifrunden/oed-tarifrunde_2008/materialien_flugblaetter_2007_2008)

Negotiations last week between Norwegian unions, the NHO employers' organisation and the government ended with apositive result for the trade unions as the government agreed to extra funding to continue to provide early retirement pensions. The official retirement age in Norway is 67, but workers can retire from 62 on a slightly reduced pension. The agreement ensures that workers still have this option as well as being able to continue working. The negotiations also resulted in a 5.6% pay increase covering mainly private sector workers, with higher increases for the lower paid. The collective agreements covered by the negotiations include the private sector nurses and health care agreement.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=256#a3737;
http://www.lo.no/portal/page/portal/LONO/PAG_NOR_DYN/PAG_ENG_ARTIKKEL?p_d_i=-121&p_d_c=&p_d_v=126742&p_d_i=-321&p_d_c=&p_d_v=126742)

After two months of industrial action, local government employers have made a `final offer' of a 2.45% pay increase with an extra UKP 100 (Euro 125) on lower pay rates. While this is an improvement on the previous offer of 2.2%, it falls well short of the trade unions' claim for 6% or 50p per hour. Unions will consult over the offer, with UNISON recommending rejection. The other unions involved, GMB and Unite, have also expressed their disappointment at the employers' offer. (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 1 No's 1 and 2).
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=256#a3737; http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=4163;
http://www.gmb.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=96860)

In answering press questions, the new Belgian prime minister Yves Leterme, visiting Luxembourg, and his Luxembourg colleague Jean-Claude Juncker stated to continue supporting the system of wage indexation prevailing in both countries. They did so despite recent criticism of the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Jean-Claude Trichet. Prime minister Juncker argued that "countries without an index do not show a better performance, neither in terms of inflation nor in terms of growth or job creation".
(Dutch: http://www.wvs-sws.be//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18809&Itemid=926; De Standaard, 8 April 2008)

Finnish transport and dock workers ended their five-day strike for increased wages on 3 April, when the main union involved in the dispute signed an agreement with management that had been proposed by the national incomes conciliator Juhani Salonius. The agreement implies an extension of the new contract from just 10 months to three years. Under the new agreement, transport workers will receive a 3.5% pay rise in April 2008 and another 1.4% in October 2008, which is about . The total pay increase will be 12-14%, which is 0.7%pts higher than than the average pay rise for 2008 agreed thus far in Finland. The strike involved around 10,000 workers at 70 bus and road haulage companies and 12 freight terminals. Over 5,000 dockworkers and members of the seamen's union took strike action in support of the transport workers.
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 3/2008; http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/lab-a06.shtml)