Collective Bargaining

The trade union Ver.di has called on bank employees in certain areas of the country to go on strike for several hours at the end of the month in order to put pressure on the negotiations for a new collective agreement in a sector with 220,000 workers. According to the union's negotiator Beate Mensch the employers have yet to make an offer. Ver.di is demanding a 6% pay increase, after 5 years of modest wage developments.
German: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/tarifstreit-verdi-kuendigt-warnstreiks ...
English: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-19/german-union-ver-dot-di ...

In a letter to the minister of labour the FP-CGIL, FP-CISL and UIL-FPL health union federations call for an urgent meeting to discuss collective bargaining in the private health sector. The unions are concerned about wage dumping in the sector after the AIOP private health employers' organisation signed agreements in March 2012 with other, unrepresentative unions. FP-CGIL, FP-CISL and UIL-FPL argue that undercutting the main sectoral agreement will undermine pay and conditions and ultimately the quality of health services provided by private companies.
Italian: http://www.fpcgil.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/22124

The trade union Fellesforbundet has called of a strike after negotiations resulted in higher wages and two guaranteed weeks of paid paternity leave for male employees in the hotel and restaurant branches. Hotel owners, some of whom feared a downturn in tourists from financially troubled countries, had resisted the union demands that lead to higher costs. But in the end they were keen to avoid a strike as the late spring- and summer tourist season gets underway. The agreement includes a pay increase for all categories of workers, improved paternity leave and a regulation of the use of temporary agency work.
English: http://www.newsinenglish.no/2012/04/19/hotel-and-restaurant-strike-averted/
Norwegian: http://fellesforbundet.no/Nyhetsarkiv/Publisert-i-2012/Ingen-streik-for-hotell ...

LO, the blue-collar trade union confederation, has put forward a pay claim to the Spekter employers' organisation that covers workers in health, transport and other public sector services. The claim includes real wage growth and a general increase of €323. LO represents 25,000 workers in the Spekter related services. LO's aim is also to improve the rights of temporary agency workers, better pay for inconvenient hours and weekend work and relief in workload, shorter working hours and other methods to improve the working conditions for older workers.
English: http://www.fagforbundet.no/forsida/?article_id=91389

Negotiations with household appliance maker Gorenje have led to a pact that aims to preserve jobs even if the company pursues plans to shift to low-cost locations. The agreement has a peace clause; the unions will cooperate with the company as long as the agreement is respected and "refrain from any action or decisions running contrary to the agreement". The company has rapidly expanded in recent years moving production to Serbian and Czech locations.
English: http://www.investslovenia.org/info/news-media/latest/n/gorenje-makes-job ...

Around 100 potato packers in Larnaca, Vrysoules and Liopetri protested with a 24-hour strike against wage and benefits cuts. The cuts could go up to 22%. There was also a protest against undeclared labour and social dumping through the abuse of foreign labour with little legal protection and poor wages. The unions warned that unless demands were met further strike action would be proceeded.
English: http://www.cyprus-mail.com/potato-packers/potato-packers-stage-warning-strike/20120418

Trade unions have delivered a petition against announced education cuts to the Ministry of Education. The government announced it will pass an education reform by royal decree on 20 April, which includes an increase in working hours, the dismissal of 100,000 teachers and bigger classes.
English: http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/news_details/2141

India's Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh (PCSS) trade union conducted a two-week tour of activities in Switzerland, educating trade union colleagues on the grave violations of work rights abuses by Holcim Cement of contract workers in India's Chhattisgarh region. Causing a stir in the Swiss media, the PCSS together with the trade union UNIA and the human rights organisation MultiWatch, solidarity organisation Solifonds, the ICEM and Building and Woodworkers' International (BWI) raised increasing awareness of the abuses with shocking details that include the worst examples of workers' rights violations around the world, especially in terms of the global trend of outsourcing and engaging precarious employment relationships.
English: http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4982-Holcim-Cement-Tainted .
German: http://unia.ch/news_aktionen.9.0.html?&L=10&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=7481&tx_t
French: http://unia.ch/news_aktion_fr.9.0.html ...

Members of Unite the Union and USDAW have accepted a revised pension deal at Unilever. GMB is still balloting its members. The revised pension deal does still end the previous pension scheme but eliminate some of the most objected parts of the new scheme, such as a unilateral ability to implement annual indexing below UK's Retail Price Index (RPI) and the elimination of any consultations with the social partners. The compromise was reached through mediation by the UK's Advisory, Conciliation, and Mediation Services (ACAS)
English: http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/?date=2012-04-18#4988; http://money.aol.co.uk/2012/04/12/unions-accept-unilever-pension-deal/

The partners in bargaining in construction concluded an agreement by the end of March that was approved by the trade union members on 16 April. The agreement that is valid till 31 December 2012 leads to a pay increase of 1% in April 2012 combined with an extra prime of 0.25%. A further increase of 0.75% is for August. Travel allowances will be lifted to €0.32 per km. For the working time new models of flexible work will be introduced (calculated over a period of 13 weeks).
Dutch: http://www.cobouw.nl/nieuws/algemeen/2012/03/26/bouw-cao-voorziet-in-pittige ...
http://www.fnvbouw.nl/nieuws/Pages/Achterban_stemt_in_met_principeakkoord ...
http://www.bouwendnederland.nl/artikelen/Pages/Afspraken_bouwcao_vernieuwend ...