On Wednesday 25 January, the two major trade union confederations, CCOO and UGT, agreed the so-called Second Agreement for Collective Use and Negotiation with the two employers' associations, CEOE and CEPYME. This central agreement comprises wage increases up to 0.5% for 2012, 0.6% for 2013 and between o.6% and 1.5% for 2014, with updates. The agreement enlarges, in addition, internal flexibility for companies, extends assumptions on the conditions in which the company owners can claim not to abide by the agreement, and determines the structure of collective negotiations. Among the reasons that could allow derogations from the agreement is a company's persistent reduction of turnover, or the fact that the company's economic perspective can be negatively affected by its application. This pact is what Spain needs at the moment, Candido Mendez, UGT Secretary General, said in a press conference, recognizing that a wage reduction is imminent.
English: http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content .
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The VPD-SSP public services union has leant its support to the initiative by the SGB/USS confederation to submit a petition with 110,000 signatures to the government and regions (cantons) to introduce a national minimum wage. The target wage is 22 CHF (?18) an hour (or 4,000 CHF (?3300) per month based on a 42-hour week). An estimated 400,000 workers currently earn less than this and three quarters of them are women. Unions in the public sector have already secured 4,000 CHF as a minimum wage, although this is under threat from privatisation. Only action by VPD-SSP ensured that the minimum would be applied following privatisation of cleaning in Geneva where the employers had wanted to introduce a minimum of only 17 CHF (?14) an hour.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/456
German: http://www.vpod.ch/aktuell/nachrichten/ansicht ...
French: http://www.ssp-vpod.ch/actualites/nouvelles/ansicht ...
The Marburger Bund doctors' trade union has agreed a pay increase of 2.9% for 50,000 doctors in 600 municipal hospitals with the VKA employers' organisation. The agreement runs from 1 January to 31 December 2012 and in addition there is a lump sum payment of €440 to cover the period from September to December 2011, effectively after the previous agreement expired until the new one comes into effect. There are also changes to the pay scale with additional steps in three of the pay bands. The union had built up pressure before the last negotiation round. After negotiations broke off in December 2011, 93% of the Bund members voted in favour of a strike.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/456 ; http://www.thelocal.de/society/20120110-40021.html
German: http://www.marburger-bund.de/tarifpolitik/vka/Tarifrunde ...
The Minister for Public Administration and Local Government, Henna Virkkunen, has told the magazine of the JHL public sector union that with one third of the municipal workforce due to retire by 2020 and with additional demands on many services, there will be plenty of job opportunities in the sector in coming years. This was also to reassure workers over the likely impact of a radial reorganisation of the local government sector, which could see the number of municipalities reduced from 336 to 100 or less. The Minister also warned of the negative impact of outsourcing. Outsourcing is not a good alternative in sectors where there is no competition, she said.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/456; http://www.jhl.fi/portal/en/news/archive/?bid=1709
Workers from Unilever's Port Sunlight UK site will be puncturing corporate power's party bubble when they turn up at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos to protest against their employer's grab on the their pensions. Unilever is planning changes that will see the UK workforce between 20 and 40% worse off following the decision by the company to cut their pensions. Thousands of workers across the multinational's twelve UK sites have been on strike since December 2011 in protest at these plans. Despite repeated appeals and the offer of talks at the conciliation service, ACAS, Unilever has steadfastly refused to meet with the unions to talk about a fairer settlement. The company's CEO, Paul Polman, is one of the co-chairs of this year's WEF.
English: http://www.unitetheunion.org/news__events/latest_news/unilever_workers ...
Over one year after their dispute began, the Unite and UNISON trade unions are maintaining their industrial action campaign in protest at pay cuts imposed by Southampton City Council. At a recent meeting the unions agreed to continue action short of a strike, to organise a lobby of the council on 15 February and to plan for a major demonstration and strike action in April (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 May, June, July-August, September and October 2011).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/456 ; http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=7539 ; http://www.unitetheunion.org/news__events/latest_news ...
The GMB general union has signed a collective agreement with the Dudley Council in the West Midlands region of England that addresses previous problems of gender pay inequality in the pay and grading structure, after GMB members voted to accept it. The negotiations were lenghty, but the agreement was necessary to bring pay in the Council in line with equality legislation.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/456 ; http://www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/latest_news/dudley_council_new_agreement.aspx
On Tuesday 24 January, unions reported that workers at Italian steelmaker Lucchini's iron and coke producing unit in Trieste went on a one-day strike to protest against plans to halt the plant. Lucchini Group, controlled by Alexei Mordashov, the majority stakeholder of Russian steel maker Severstal, has told the unions it could stop production at the Ferriera Servola plant from 1 February. Urging Lucchini to find a solution to keep the plant running, Servola workers decided to lay down tools on Tuesday, the FIM, FIOM, UILM and FAILMS unions said in a joint statement. Shutdown of the Trieste plant would hit the entire group, unions say.
English: http://af.reuters.com/article/metalsNews/idAFL5E8CO1U020120124 via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Italy
The UNIA union celebrated a success in its campaign to save the 320 jobs at the pharmaceutical giant Novartis' production site at Prangis, near Nyon. On 17 January the decision to reverse a plant closure at the Prangin production site near Nyon was announced, following a spirited campaign of strikes, mass mobilisations and mass support from the local public and area politicians. Staff at the Prangins facility took the concession of increasing weekly work hours from 37.5 to 40 in negotiations. Novartis had planned to cut 2,000 jobs internationally, with 760 at its Basle headquarters and 320 in Nyon. Job cuts were greatly reduced at Basle as well, with only a third of the initially planned job cuts to now occur.
English: http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4859-UNIA-Jobs-Saved ...
On 17 January, after a marathon 15-hour bargaining session, agreement has been reached between the state-owned Maritsa East Mines (BEH-EAD) on the one hand and the Federation of Independent Miners' Unions (KNSB/CITUB) and the Podkrepa's Miners' Federation on the other. The settlement ended a seven-day coalminers' strike in the Stara Zagora province. It produced a partial payment of a bonus that was promised the 7,000 miners in July 2011, but more importantly, calls for improved working conditions, an increase in investment at the three open-cast mines, and a commitment not to consider privatisation. The settlement outlines guidelines to improve health and safety at Bulgaria's largest mining complex, a key point raised in an intervention of the ICEM (International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions). The two unions won assurances that the state company will make BGN 20 million (?10.2 million) available for safety. On the fifth day of the strike, management made an effort to have the Court declare the strike illegal, but the magistrates dismissed the case.
English: http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4848-Week-Long-Coal-Strike ...; http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=135905