Collective Bargaining

The trade union of the Bulgarian railway workers affiliated to the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CITUB) has commented in a positive sense on the most recent decision of the Transport Ministry. The union wants to keep the number of the trains and the number of the workers upright. The national privatization agency announced it is cancelling the current privatization procedure of national BDZ state railways company freight unit in order to re-launch it on lower criteria. The agency's action is a reaction to receiving only one bid in the current privatization round. BDZ national railways has long been making losses and gone through several rounds of dismissals, as reported in previous issues of our newsletter.
English: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=141568
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n282732
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n284695

Trade union OGBL put out a statement that several supermarkets do not comply with new opening hours legislation that came into force on 1 August. The new law states that supermarkets have to close by 19:00 (an hour earlier than before) on Saturdays and the evenings before bank holidays. The union has called on the ministry of the middle classes to take action and requested the labour minister to have all collective contracts for wrongful extensions of opening hours.
English: http://www.wort.lu/en/view/ogbl-claims-shops-do-not-adhere ...

Large scale outsourcing and the relocation of production has initiated a discussion about the future of the Danish labour market model. Liberal business daily Borsen was sympathetic to the complaints of the furniture giant Fritz Hansen, who announced to move the production out of the country because of high Danish salaries and taxes. But Politiken newspaper branded Borsen's idea a "losing strategy" and instead advocated better training for Danish workers as a way to help them clinch highly-skilled positions and to allow the manufacturing industry to specialise in high-quality products.
English: http://cphpost.dk/business/retraining-workers-only-way-out-manufacturing
Focus on the Danish bargaining model:http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2012/04/articles/dk1204019i.htm

The March Negra (Black march) of the miners' protests reached Madrid on 11 July, after a journey on foot of over 400 kilometres that they set off on 22 June. Hundreds of thousands attended the UGT and CCOO rally against the closure of the mines on Madrid's Plaza de Col¢n. The miners from the country's northern provinces have been on strike for over a month, as reported in previous newsletters, protesting against the large scale retraction of public subsidies for the mining sector that has already lost over 40,000 jobs in the last 20 years. As supporters joined the protest and the government announced yet more austerity measures, clashes occurred between the protesters and riot police. The police shot with rubber bullets at the protesters, who threw rocks at the police. Although talks between the Industry Ministry and the unions have not yielded any results, unions sent their members back to work whilst they contemplate further actions.
English: http://www.industriall-union.org/spanish-miners-marcha-negra-arrives-in-madrid ... http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Coal/8594705

Wild blueberries are much sought after by the health-food industry: four-fifths of Sweden's delicious blueberries are exported. However, the confederation of Swedish trade unions (LO) has called berry picking "modern slavery". LO complains that Sweden has "lost control over workplace conditions as global labour has become a cheap commodity". When berries are scarce, pickers often cannot cover the costs of plane tickets, food and lodging. Polarica, a big company for frozen berries, has suggested "fair trade" certification, so that consumers can choose berries picked only by workers who have been treated and paid well.
English: http://www.economist.com/node/21559956

Becoming Green, a roofing and environmental refitting company in Cardiff, has started hiring inmates for œ3 per day to staff its call centre, from which regular employees have been fired. Becoming Green stated that under the law it is allowed to draw 20% of its workforce from prison labour and intends to do so.
English: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/08/prisoners-call-centre ... http://www.unitetheunion.org/news__events/latest_news/unite_brands_cardiff ...

Public railway employees held a one-day strike against privatisation plans. The government plans to sell off part of the railways in order to slash the public deficit. Unions have announced more strikes for September. The workers also protest against new minimum service requirements that do not only cover passenger transport but also freight trains.
English: http://www.euronews.com/2012/08/03/spain-anti-privatisation-rail-strike ... http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/7698

A new Employment Outlook of the OECD provides figures on the bargaining pattern (central, sectoral, local) and the coverage of collective agreements. The report includes updated Tables and Graphs on the structure of collective bargaining systems, changes in the labour share and in income inequality. In one chapter workers' bargaining power and the evolution of collective bargaining institutions is treated. Countries with widespread multi-employer bargaining and/or legal extension mechanisms, such as Austria, Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, Italy and Spain, all have relatively high collective bargaining coverage rates which are significantly higher than their union density rates.
English: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/employment/oecd-employment-outlook-2012 ...
French: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/employment/perspectives-de-l-emploi ...

A long-pending pension reform legislation that aims to define the compensation of reduced pensions and the further development of private pensions is expected to be launched by the government. According to the government the pension compensation would not start immediately after the adoption of the legislation. In July a website was opened that provides information on what is called the pension accumulation system.
English: http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/31745/
http://www.pensijusistema.lt/index.php?-1539787636

On commission of Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Finnish trade unions, the Fafo foundation produced a report on minimum wages from a Nordic point of view. The report gives an overview of the minimum wage structures across Europe and explains why Nordic unions have been opposed to the introduction of statutory minimum wages in their countries. The report is now available in English, German and Norwegian.

English: http://www.fafo.no/pub/rapp/20243/index.html