Collective Bargaining

A strike to protest proposed layoffs continues at the Madrid airport. Cleaners are protesting plans by their cleaning company to lay off 54 out of 270 workers at the airport. The strike was joined by the cleaners from Terminal 4. Worker representatives and the management of Eulen, the company that holds the concession to clean Terminal 4, had held 14 hours of talks to find a solution to the impasse but eventually failed to reach an agreement.
English: http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/01/29/inenglish ...

Construction workers decided to continue their strike indefinitely, while the union picket line (from SEK, PEO and DEOK) became embroiled in a fight when a contractor tried to recruit strike-breakers to continue works on a hotel renovation site. The strike-breakers worked under conditions that were far below the terms and conditions in the agreed collective agreements. Workers criticised their employers for taking advantage of cheap foreign workers, essentially taking the industry back ten years and destroying the trade union movement.
English: http://www.news.cyprus-property-buyers.com/2013/01/27/indefinite-strike ...
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/builders-strike/building-strike-continues/20130129

Five healthcare workers' organisations are not ready to sign the good will cooperation agreement aimed to guarantee sustainability of the healthcare system. The organisations claim that the nine-page agreement, initiated after the doctors and nurses' strike in October 2012 and convened by the social ministry, is vague and that the social minister doesn't want to take responsibility.
English: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/markets_and_companies ...

Forestry companies have lured workers from Cameroon with false promises of pay and working conditions. The migrant workers had been promised a monthly salary of €2,150, plus €700 in per diems. Upon arrival the deal changed and it was no longer a monthly salary but instead paid at a piece rate of €0.02. To get close to the monthly pay that they had been promised, they then had to work day and night and plant about 3500 new trees a day in 2011.
English: http://www.ituc-csi.org/sweden-forced-labour-for?lang=en

Trade unions have been organising monthly strikes and disruptions at the Peugeot Aulnay plant, while management and unions continue to negotiate over the exact number of workers to be fired. Peugeot announced last year (see July newsletter) that the carmaker will be closing the plant, dismissing its 8000 workers. In the meantime the court in Paris has ruled that the negotiations with some of the main suppliers of the carmaker (workers belonging to the subsidiary Faurecia Int‚rieurs Industries) should continue and have to be finalised before any other measures can be taken (court text only available in French).
English: http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2013/01/peugeot-workers-protest-layoffs ...
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/french-autoworkers-disrupt-peugeot-citroen-plant
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/29/renault-peugeot-cutbacks ...
French: http://www.franceinfo.fr/sites/default/files/2013/01/29 ...
German: http://www.taz.de/1/archiv/digitaz/artikel ...

Trade union SKEI has organised warning strikes in the electro industry, the metal industry, basic materials and foundries, employing about 14,000 employees in more than 100 companies. The warning strikes took place on 23 and 24 January and were a reaction to low wage offers in the electro and metal industry and employer hesitation to even start collective bargaining in the other branches. SKEI has said that due to the absence of a wage agreement in 2012, they are demanding a 6.5% increase in electro, 7.5% in metal and 9% in basic materials and foundries.
English: http://www.eucoban.eu/EMF/Reports/Slovenia-Warning-strikes ...

Despite a court order to return to work, Athens metro employees refused to go back to work and continued a strike that already lasted a full week. Trade union representatives stated the workers did not see the point of working if their salaries cannot pay the bills. Metro workers saw their salaries cut from €1300 to €700 per month. The metro workers went on strike together with doctors, who also protested against income cuts. On 25 January, riot police moved in and forced workers back to work under the threat of arrest. The ITUC has condemned what is called the latest of a series of measures taken by the Greek government that severely undermine the fundamental rights of workers in stark violation of international conventions.
English: http://www.ituc-csi.org/ituc-condemns-latest-attack-on?lang=en
http://www.timescolonist.com/business/new-pay-cuts-trigger-transport-strikes-in-greece ...
http://mtstandard.com/business/greek-doctors-athens-metro-workers-on-strike ...

The union representing workers at Eesti Energia's Narva Power Plants decided to demand a salary increase of 15% after talks on a collective agreement broke down. The Narva Energia Union said workers are demanding that the raise be made retroactive to January 1 and that their salaries increase a further 10% from 2014. The union has threatened to call a strike if its demands are not met but has not set a date for the action. Workers at another Eesti Energia subsidiary, the Eesti Energia Mining, reached an agreement to avert a strike. The miners will receive a salary increase of 7% after initially demanding 20%.
English: http://news.err.ee/economy ...

An industrial dispute that seems to become a never ending story has turned into an effective strike of thousands of workers. Workers at the state-owned VMZ Sopot (see also the Newsletter July-August 2012) have been staging strikes since mid-December. They are outraged by the constant delays of their salaries and are rallying with demands for securing orders and better working conditions in the winter. Meanwhile, the only bidder that came forward to take over the plant has made known that it considers the current collective agreement a hurdle and only wishes to buy the plant on the condition that 2,000 of its 3,200 workers be laid off. The strike was called off by the trade unions after prime minister Borisov declared the workers will receive the entire amount of their overdue pay. He also told the workers that in case of needed layoffs, they will be redirected to other jobs and pledged a recovery of the plant.
English: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=146897
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=147314

Cyprus Airways management and the trade unions are expected to reach an agreement to keep the airline flying but which leads to the layoff of 407 workers and a 10 per cent reduction in pay for the remaining employees. The proposal is under discussion between the Ministry of Finance and the trade unions.
English: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/01/28/cyprus-airways-seeks-survival ...