Over 2,000 unionists from all over the country, mostly from the Solidarity union, and workers from the H. Cegielski plant in Poznan demonstrated in defense of the workplace and to demand higher severance pay for sacked workers. Cegielski, a manufacturer of heavy metal products, went into trouble not least due to the demise of the shipyard industry in Poland. Solidarity and OPPZ, the largest unions involved, agreed in September to group dismissals of 497 workers, and are actually demonstrating for better severance packages as well as in defense of the remaining jobs at the factory.
English: http://pracownik.net.pl/demonstration_in_defense_of_cegielski_workers
via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Poland
Search results
Find articles
8810 articles found.
The VIDA and GPA-DJP trade unions have called for private childcare providers to be covered by the BAGS health and social service sectoral agreement. At the moment these employees are not covered by a collective agreement. The unions argue that they have faced a significant increase in the demands made upon them but there has been no attempt to re-evaluate their jobs and negotiate an appropriate increase in pay levels. The unions also want to see a federal law to regulate conditions and minimum standards for childcare provision.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/327;
German: http://www.vida.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=S03 .
The waste contractor HCS has sacked 50 refuse collectors after losing a number of its municipal contracts in the Copenhagen area. The workers had been on strike for three weeks over their working conditions. Despite being sacked they have been continuing their action against the company, picketing the HCS waste disposal units in Glostrup and on the island of Amager. Union activist Ronni Larsen was arrested on one of the latest demonstrations. The refuse collectors had discovered that they were working under much worse conditions than employees working on other contracts in the area. The Health and Safety Executive and the 3F trade union had taken hundreds of cases against the company.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/327;
Danish: http://forsiden.3f.dk/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091027 .
The three main unions in the National Grid energy company - Unite, UNISON and GMB - have conceded that the planned closure of the company's Newcastle site will go ahead in 2010 with many of the jobs being moved to India. The unions ran a joint campaign focusing on the massive profits being made by the company but they are now shifting their focus to negotiating the best severance packages for their members (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 2 July-August 2009).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/327; http://www.gmb.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=99169
The Mandate trade union is balloting workers in Boots retail stores throughout the country for industrial action. Mandate and Boots management entered a series of negotiations as the company insisted on a range of cost saving measures. These talks recently collapsed following disclosure that the company is still highly profitable. As a result, Boots threatens to terminate all previously negotiated agreements with Mandate and plans, among other things, 25% reductions in public holiday pay and Sunday premiums.
English: http://www.mandate.ie/Campaigns/Boots-Campaign.aspx; http://www.uniglobalunion.org/Apps/iportal.nsf/pages/homepageEn
On 19 October, railway workers went on a nationwide strike after the government announced plans to slash the railway budget and close railway lines. Protest focused on proposals to withdraw 40 billion HUF (Euro 146 million) in funding from the railway industry, as well as to close some 30 lines, affecting 5,000 workplaces. Talks between the government and the unions on 20 October as to resolve the dispute failed, and were followed by a two-hour warning strike on Tuesday 27 October. The next negotiation round is set on 2 November. According to our Hungarian spokesperson, this was the first railway strike since 2000 called for by all five unions involved.
English: http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail .; http://english.eastday.com/e/1028/u1a4765106.html
On 21 October, ward assistants at Limassol General Hospital held a 24-hour strike in protest against staff shortages and increased workloads. Strikers' representative Christos Ioannides warned that unless the hospital authorities respond to a letter from the health unions within ten days, hospital's ward staff was prepared to go out on indefinite strike. District Secretary of PEO civil servants' union, Adonis Papachristoforou, said the government had carried out an enquiry, which recommended the hiring of 180 extra staff. His counterpart in the SEK union, Charis Antoniades, said that "everyone has admitted that clearly there is a problem at Limassol Hospital, but nobody is taking the initiative to solve it."
English: http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=48429&cat_id=1
via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Cyprus
HK (National Union of Commercial and Clerical Employees), Denmark's largest trade union, has started a comprehensive campaign to push parliament into making laws enforcing equal pay and rights for women in the workplace. Unless the existing legal framework, according to HK the gender pay gap is nearly 18%. Says HK president, Kim Simonsen, "It's embarrassing that the difference between men's and women's salaries is so large." The cause for equal pay received a boost earlier this month, when the Supreme Court ruled in favour of a female sales consultant who found she was earning 7,500 Danish crowns (Euro 1,010) a month less than her male colleagues. After a 10-year court battle, the woman finally won her case and was awarded back pay compensation.
English: http://www.cphpost.dk/component/content/47261.html?task=view
via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Denmark
The fifteen week dispute at Marine Terminals Ltd in Dublin Port has ended following a decision by the company to accept a Labour Court recommendation on job retention and redundancies. According to SIPTU Regional Secretary, Christy McQuillan, the parties will begin discussions immediately to give effect to the recommendations of the Court. "We welcome the improved redundancy offer and note the courts' recommendation that the parties engage directly with a view to resolving other issues including the number of jobs and the selection process for any further redundancies", he said (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 2 July-August 2009).
English: http://www.siptu.ie/PressRoom/NewsReleases/Headline/Name,11191,en.html
On 20 October, German cleaners launched a general strike for decent wages and other employment conditions. On the first strike day, some 1,000 cleaners would have downed their tools and more are expected to join them. In numerous offices, public institutions and hospitals, dirt is piling up and airplanes have to depart late or uncleaned, union IG BAU has announced. Measures have been taken to prevent problems at critical services such as intensive care facilities. Among other things, the union demands a pay rise and a reduction of the pay gap between cleaners in the East and the West of Germany. Currently, the minimum wage is Euro 8.15 per hour for cleaners in the West, and Euro 6.58 in the East. Many of the cleaners are immigrants. "We live in Europe, but our living conditions are not up to European standards," cleaner Habibe Karafil told newspaper Milliyet.
English: http://unionrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/10/germany-cleaners .