Collective Bargaining

The countries’ feminist movement has called out a 24-hour strike on March 8 2019, International Women's Day. With the strike they want to draw attention to the inequality and violence suffered by women. The Federation of Education of trade union CCOO calls for a general strike in Education on March 8. With their strike they want to underline that it is increasingly urgent to place equality, coeducation and the elimination of violence at the centre of the educational debate.

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The Federation of Trade Unions (SGB) starts an initiative to stop the ever growing costs of healthcare. Under the device ‘Health isn’t a luxury product’ the SGB declares that no one should pay more than 10% of available income for healthcare premiums. Premiums should decline and healthcare be available to all. The SGB started a Volksinitiative (People’s initiative) to change the law accordingly.

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Trade union FNV states that it will take grocery delivery service Picnic to court for refusing to pay staff according to the nationwide sectoral supermarket labour agreement. According to the union workers are paid 2 euro an hour less than they should be payed because the company is refusing to apply the supermarket labour agreement. The company is defending itself by stating that the supermarket labour agreement doesn’t apply to them because they are instead in the e-commerce sector. Picnic is however engaging in a hard competition with supermarkets and unions believe that the underpayment of staff at Picnic is causing unfair competitions towards other supermarkets.

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During the 3rd Lichtensteinischer Tag der Lohngleichheit (Lichtenstein Day of Wage Equality) a wage analysis among the 1,900 employees of the Hilti factory was presented. The analysis showed that wage differences between the workers are just and right. Only 0.8% of the differences cannot be explained by education, experience and other non-gender variables.

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Amazon drivers in the Lombardy region are organising industrial action to protest working conditions. Especially the high work load is a problem for the drivers. The company has seen an increase in market share but the number of workers has not increased accordingly. The drivers say that they now receive twice as much work as a driver would normally handle. Transportation unions Filt Cgil-Fit Cisi-Uil asked Amazon for "a responsible intervention” as workers said many of last years’ new hires were sent home after Christmas. Drivers plan to stop deliveries in Lombardy and demonstrate under the office building of the company headquarters in Milan.

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Trade union Efling is organising a one-day work stoppage at hotels and guesthouses throughout the country in order to urge employers’ to meet their collective bargaining demands. When members vote in favour of the industrial action, cleaning, housekeeping and laundry services will be unavailable. The collective agreement for these workers expired at the end of December 2018. Unions demand a significant wage increase that they say is already long overdue. When member vote in favour of the actions the strike will begin at 10 on the morning of 8 March 2019 and will finish at 23:59 on the same day except if the collective agreement has been signed before this time.

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The city council of Birmingham has installed some temporary measures to deal with a series of strikes by the Birmingham rubbish collectors and keep the streets clean. Usually, city residents get a weekly general waste collection and a recycling service every two weeks. During the temporary service people should put both bins out on their recycling collection day Unite, the union representing the majority of the city's bins workforce, announced it was to ballot members over industrial action amid health and safety concerns. One of the mains reasons for the strike is a dispute over "secret payments" made to non-striking GMB staff in 2017.

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The Latvian Trade Union of Education and Science Employees (LIZDA) announced that they might organise strike actions during the exit exams if government doesn’t include a wage rise for teachers in the new budget. Although the premier agreed that raising teachers’ wages was an objective necessity, government officials state that they are in a difficult position because the previous government promised to raise the wages of teachers but didn’t earmark the necessary funds.

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The new country report by the European Commission states the country continues to catch up with the rest of the European Union rapidly but needs to adjust to the challenge of a shrinking population. The economy is growing steadily but the fruits of its rapid economic development have not been equally shared among its social groups and regions. Furthermore, the declining population, is putting pressure on the labour market and social security systems.

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At least 5000 members of the Federation of Romanian Transport Operators are expected to demonstrate on 22 February in Bucharest's Victory Square. The Federation of Romanian Transport Operators is protesting rising fuel duties and alleged illegal transport operators active in the country. The workers want the government to take an active regulatory stance on the matter. Transportation is expected to be severely disrupted by the protest

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