Collective Bargaining

The trade unions had called for a strike at bars, cafes and restaurants on all airports across the country. The CCOO and UGT unions described the action as a great success with 90% of the workforce supporting the strike. The action, which could run until mid-January 2018, is set up in order to demonstrate the large dissatisfaction with the policy of the airport manager Aena that is characterised by a fragmentation of the concessions of the establishments into very small lots. This policy makes it difficult for companies to be profitable unless they cut labour costs.

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Engineers from the Icelandair airline ended their strike. For six months the airline engineers have been negotiating with their management to demand a 20% pay increase. The strike resulted in a tentative agreement. Both parties had to make concessions, and now they have a contract until the end of 2019. The strike has led to some delayed flights, but now flight schedules will return back to normal.

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The employment perspectives of the thousands of steel workers at the troubled Ilva-plant are still not secured. Steelmaker ArcelorMittal told commissioners running the plant that it wants changes made to the contract, in which it agreed to buy the company, in order to protect it from legal challenges. Partly, the challenges stem from an appeal filed by the local authorities against the central government’s approval of ArcelorMittal’s environmental plan for Ilva. The authorities said the environmental clean-up plan for Europe’s largest steelwork did not do enough to safeguard the environment and public health. The health damage caused by the plant has been linked to higher than average local cancer rates. The trade unions organised a meeting with fellow-unions from other ArcelorMittal plants in Europe to discuss the strategy.

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The Thyssenkrupp management has offered workers commitments on jobs and investments to get union backing for its deal with Tata Steel to merge their European steel operations. Both groups agreed in September in a memorandum to merge their operations, creating the continent’s second largest steelmaker with revenues of 15 billion euro. Workers at Thyssenkrupp fiercely opposed the deal, as they were concerned more steel jobs would get lost on top of the 4,000 already announced. IG Metall demanded 10-year guarantees for jobs, plants and investments and set a deadline for an agreement. The union came to a deal on 21 December 2017 that secures steel plants and jobs, a big step towards the planned merger. The agreement, which still needs to be approved by the members of IG Metall, foresees no forced layoffs or major site closures until 30 September 2026; this result comes close to the union’s demands.

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Trade unions representing workers in leading distribution and warehouse companies are calling out their members to put into effect a nationwide strike on the 23rd and 24th of December of 2017 to press for better working conditions. According to trade union FEPCES, the strike is over the collective employment contract in force in the sector, salaries, automatic promotions for warehouse workers, and rules on working hours.

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Workers organised a massive 24-hour general strike demanding the government to end austerity measures. Ferries and flights were suspended, public transport was limited and hospitals treated emergency cases only as doctors joined workers across the country in the strike. Around 50 anti-austerity demonstrations took place across the country. Unions are calling on the government to stop making cuts that have led to poverty, high unemployment and restrictions on labour rights. The third international bailout programme is due to end in August 2018, and the country has agreed to continue slashing wages and pensions when external funding comes to an end. Earlier this month, the government decided to withdraw an amendment on workers’ strike, due to strong reactions from opposition parties. Regarding the right to go on strike, the amendment said that for a union to go on strike, at least 50% plus one of active union members must agree.

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Several hundred employees at the Ford Craiova car plant started a spontaneous strike, one day after the trade union announced that an agreement with the management was reached on a two-years collective agreement. The agreement would cover the transfer of social contributions to employees and grant a monthly wage increase of RON 300 (64.7 euro) for the new assembly line workers in 2017. The workforce clearly disapproved the outcome of the negotiations. The US car manufacturer, with 4,200 employees in Craiova, wanted to increase the gross salary from 2018 only if workers agreed that a two-year collective agreement, instead of the usual one year, was signed.

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In a report with several interesting data and graphs, the IMF assesses the current economic situation. The figures show the massive and continuous fall of wage and pension expenses as a share of GDP. In one part of the report (Section D), the reform plans, often leading to serious jobs losses, related to the privatisation of strategic companies are discussed.

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The government has approved that the wages of resident doctors increase in 2018. The health ministry estimates that the monthly salary of a junior resident will rise from 390.5 euro to 463.75 euro and that of a senior resident will go up from 497 euro to 530 euro. The government allocated an additional 1.4 million euro in the 2018 budget for the pay increase.

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Trade union LANV published a handsome overview of the bargaining results for the year 2018. The list of sectoral agreements reveals that the general tendency is a modest 0.5% wage increase, with an improvement of the minimum wage and a nominal increase of at least 100 Swiss Francs. In most branches, the minimum wage for unskilled workers is now set at 3,300 Swiss Francs (2810 euro). Also improved are the parental leave and holidays. The union still has serious difficulties to get a decent agreement in hospitality and in the hairdresser branches.

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