The Ukrainian and Russian crew of the mv Clipper Faith freighter, which stranded in Dublin since December 2012, were paid ?314,160.62 in arrears of wages. The crew will now be able to return home. The arrears were secured by the International Transport Workers' Federation and the amount is the largest ever secured for the crew of a merchant vessel in Ireland. The arrears had accumulated since 1 December with no sign of ever being paid. The mv Clipper Faith was arrested by the Netherlands Bank BV on 12 March 2012 in a dispute over mortgage repayments by Sea Management Woodford Green, the London based owner-operators of the Belize flagged vessel. The breakthrough came after a proposal by the ITF co-ordinator in Britain and Ireland, Ken Fleming of SIPTU, who agreed to seek an order from the High Court for appraisal and sale of the vessel if the bank released the vessel, guaranteed to pay the crew's arrears and to pay for a replacement crew to take over within 21 days. In return the crew members agreed to subrogate their lien on the wages to the Bank.
English: http://www.siptu.ie/media/pressreleases2013/featurednews ...
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A four hour strike of the EasyJet's flight attendants, the first national protest by stewards and hostesses of the airline, was fixed by the trade unions Filt Cgil and Fit Cisl. The unions demand a dialogue with the cheap carrier over the working conditions of the staff. At Air Dolomiti, a Lufthansa subsidiary, the trade unions staged a strike after four pilots were dismissed for voicing concern about the future of the airline.
English: http://www.avionews.com/index.php ...
By mid-May Trade union IG Metall agreed a pay deal with the metal industry's employers association, averting the threat of a major strike. Salaries will increase in two steps: a 3.4% rise in July 2013 and a further 2.2% rise in May 2014. Earlier on the union declared that 400,000 workers had already joined a wave of limited warning strikes, as they sought to put pressure on their employers to increase a pay offer. The union had called for inflation-beating wage hikes of up to 5.5% for some 3.7 million workers from May. IG Metall so far rejected an offer from employers to increase wages by 2.3% from July. A deal in the state Baden-Wrttemberg, home to major carmakers such as Daimler and Porsche as well as manufacturers such as printing machine maker Heidelberger Druck, normally sets the tone for wage hikes in the engineering sector nationwide. Based on this deal workers at Volkswagen's German factories and financial services, in total 102,000 workers, will receive a pay hike in a two-step wage increase over the next 20 months (3.4% from September 2013 and another 2.2% from July 2014 onwards). VW has negotiated its own separate wage agreement with unions for a number of years now. The collective agreement, which will run until February 2015, includes a one-time contribution of ?300 in each worker's pension plan.
English: http://www.thelocal.de/jobs/?site ...
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/05/07/uk-germany-strike ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/28/volkswagen-wages ...
http://www.france24.com/en/20130528-vw-management-unions-reach-pay-deal
Workers at Prisa TV have announced a one-week strike, which will affect 37 TV channels, including sports channels currently broadcasting the Roland Garros tournament and the football leagues. Prisa TV is being taken over by its mother company, a move which is expected to be accompanied by job losses.
English: http://www.rapidtvnews.com/index ...
Air traffic in the north of the country came to a standstill as ground crew of the domestic airline Wideroe went on strike in March 2013. The strike spread out, effectively suspending air traffic at the northern airports of Bronnoysund, Svolvr, Vardo, Vadso, Mehamn and Honningsvg. While several issues between trade union LFF and the firm providing ground services to Wideroe remain unresolved, the workers went back to work. The cabin crew's strike at the Wideroe airline also ended, after the staff and management reached an agreement. The flight attendants were striking for the right to determine their own pension programs. Their trade union Parat believes the flight attendants, the vast majority of whom are women, should have the same pension rights as pilots. According to Parat the crew won their case and will now have the opportunity to influence the future of their own pension plans.
English: http://www.newsinenglish.no/2013/05/27/airport-strike-in-north-finally-ends/
http://www.norwaypost.no/index.php/news/latest-news/28519-the-wideroe-strike-is-over
http://www.newsinenglish.no/2013/05/08/wideroe-on-strike-flights-grounded/
Workers at Amazon.com organised a second warning strike. The industrial action takes place in a conflict over wages and working conditions. Trade union Ver.di is attempting to pressure Amazon into closing a collective agreement similar to those governing retail and mail-order workers. Amazon workers currently receive up to ?9,000 per year less than workers in comparable jobs.
English: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/german-amazon-staff ...
In his regular Blog in the New York Times Paul Krugman comments on a FT-publication about the difficult situation that Portugal is in. The classical answer to this kind of problems would be expansionary monetary and fiscal policy. Without its own currency this in no option. His alternative is a much stronger expansion in the euro area as a whole and higher inflation in the European core. Looser monetary policy could help achieve these things, and as much help as possible from fiscal policy too - not a situation in which austerity in the periphery is reinforced by austerity in the core.
English: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/nightmare-in-portugal/
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms ...
A survey by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) revealed that Danes perceive work-related stress to be less of a factor than in other EU countries. According to OSHA's study, only 38% of Danes surveyed thought that work-related stress was common at their place of employment. Some 55% reported that work-related stress was rare. However, two recent surveys from trade unions document that emotional stress is very much a part of the workplace and that Danes are just as likely to be affected by work stress as other Europeans.
English: http://cphpost.dk/news/national/surveys-paint-blurry-picture-workplace-stress
A new unemployment benefit (dagpenge) plan that is expected to prevent thousands of people from losing their unemployment benefit rights was recently proposed by the government. The plan will extend the current education initiative for unemployed until the end of this year and will incorporate a new labour market benefit, running from 2014 to 2017. Details were published in several articles.
English: http://cphpost.dk/news/politics/new-dagpenge-agreement-place
http://cphpost.dk/news/immigration-amp-denmark/dagpenge-agreement ...
The research institute FAFO published a paper about the early retirement systems, age retirement limits and pension schemes for occupations that have a lower age limit than standard age limit in the occupational pension system. The study looks at schemes either based on legislation or on collective agreements. The overall pension system has undergone several changes over the past seven years. It is expected that the traditional define benefit schemes will be transformed to new types of (hybrid) pension systems.
English: http://www.fafo.no/pub/rapp/10177/10177.pdf