On the evening of Thursday 29 September, negotiations aimed at a collective agreement in the technology industry broke off as the negotiators of the three unions involved -representing some 250,000 wage and salary earners- left the meeting. The gap between employers' offer and the joined union demands was quite large. Employers offered a 1% overall pay hike for the coming autumn, in addition to an inflation index boost of 0.3% in June 2012 as well as an additional 0.6% at company level - amounting to 1.9% increase for one year and a half. The union side demanded 4% in autumn 2011 and an additional 2% in summer 2012. An angry Metalworkers' Union chairman Riku Aalto commented: "The employers had no intention of achieving a contract. There was just a competition of who could be first to make as cheap an offer as possible". Antti Rinne, chairman of the Trade Union Pro, the largest union representing white-collar employees, reacted in the same vein: "The offer is inconceivably low for the present situation. Negotiations cannot continue on this basis." The unions are still considering further steps.
English: http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Union+negotiators+walk+out+of+technology ... http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=27539&l=2
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On Friday 30 September, workers at LyondellBasell's Berre L'Etang plant near Marseille voted to prolong their 3-day strike until Monday 3 October lunchtime, in protest of the planned closure of their plant. They have also blocked access and exit of products at the company's Fos-sur-Mer Caban chemical plant. Yet, representatives of the CGT union covering nearby plants, including Total's La Mede, Exxon Mobil's Fos-sur-Mer and Ineos's Lavera refineries, have decided not to join the strike for the time being. CGT official Marc Sarde said his union wants to avoid a situation like in October 2010, when a month-long strike paralyzed French refineries.
English: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/30/oil-france-refineries ... http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Petrochemicals/8406400
A public sector-wide strike over pensions could take place on 30 November as several major trade unions, including UNISON, Unite and PCS, have agreed to ballot their members over industrial action on that day. Government proposals to change several public sector schemes is meeting serious resistance as unions express their anger of the imposition of higher retirement ages and increases in employee contributions, despite evidence that such measures are not necessary to fund the schemes. The national executive committee of the PCS has already given formal backing for over 250,000 civil and public servants to join the strike (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 April, May, June and July-August 2011).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/437 http://www.unitetheunion.org/news__events/latest_news/unite_to_ballot ... http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/id/B080 ... http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/id/8E60 .
On Saturday 24 September, negotiations between Airbus and the IG Metall union on a collective agreement for 16,000 employees in Germany broke down. "After nearly 12 hours, the employers ended the negotiations. They remain inflexible on raising the productivity rate to 8% a year. We can't demand that of our colleagues," two of the IG Metall negotiators, Daniel Friedrich and Johann Dahnken, said in a statement. The failure to reach an agreement came as a surprise after a year and a half of efforts appeared to be about to come to fruition. The prospective agreement would cover a range of issues from an employment guarantee in the coming years to a ceiling on hiring temporary workers. In the new situation, the bargaining committee of IG Metall has decided to start warning strikes, covering the Airbus locations Hamburg, Bremen, Buxtehude and Stade.
English: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeq ...
German: http://www.igmetall.de/cps/rde/xchg/SID-1018C2B6 ...
The trade union organisations in the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ), backed by the union confederations, have given the government one last chance to avoid a mass railway strike in October, which they announced two weeks earlier in September. The railway unions are set to meet with Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski on Monday 3 October in order to find common ground to clarify the situation in the railway sector, announced Plamen Dimitrov, President of KNSB (Confederation of Independent Bulgarian Unions). The unions are firmly opposed to the government's intention, under opressure of a memorandum with the World Bank, to privatize BDZ Freight Services, the freight section of the state-owned operator, traditionally more profitable than the troubled passenger section. All unions involved have complained about the lack of contact with BDZ management and the Transport Ministry.
English: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=132176 http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=132533
All three Finnish union confederations, Akava, SAK and STTK, oppose the government's plan to cut compensation to employees who opt for job alternation leave. The government intends to cut the alternation leave compensation by 10 to 20% from its present level. Currently, employees on job alternation leave are entitled to compensation between 70 and 80% of unemployment benefit. The system of job alternation leave was established in 1996. To date thousands of employees have availed of the scheme; in 2010 over 17,000 took the opportunity. The confederations strenuously insist that the planned cuts run counter to the generally approved goal of extending working careers, a goal emphasized in the government programme. Moreover, due to the requirement that the employer must hire an unemployed jobseeker to replace the employee on job alternation leave, the system has created job opportunities for many unemployed, and the unions are afraid that the planned cuts would make it difficult, especially for employees in low-pay jobs, to make use of the system.
English: http://www.artto.kaapeli.fi/unions/T2011/o37
On 27 September, an ILO High Level Mission to Greece finished a full week of extensive meetings with all relevant actors of the country's labour market. The mandate of the mission arose from complaints concerning the application of international conventions ratified by Greece in the area of freedom of association, collective bargaining, wages, social security, employment policy, labour inspection and non-discrimination. The mission was led by Guy Ryder, Executive Director for Standards and Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, following a request by ILO supervisory bodies, in particular the independent Committee of Experts and the tripartite Committee on the Application of Standards. A full report of the mission will be delivered to the Greek government and its social partners once meetings scheduled with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EU also have taken place.
English: http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/news/WCMS ...
Public and private education unions organised a nationwide strike on Tuesday 27 September, to protest job cuts and what the unions involved call the degradation of education. After a total of 50,000 education posts have been cut since 2007, 16,000 posts will likely be cut in the school year 2011-2012, and another 14,000 in 2012. According to the Ministry for the Interior, 110,000 teachers went on strike, but a first estimate of the FSU and UNSA-Education unions came at 165,000, of which 45,000 on strike in Paris, or about half of the potential strikers. The unions point at the remarkable support of pupils and parents for the strike.
French: http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2011/09/26/mardi-une-greve ...
On 26 September, the Confederation of Bohemian and Moravian Trade Unions (CMKOS) agreed on long-term cooperation with the ProAlt civic group coalition that is opposed to the country's centre-right cabinet, according to the CMKOS head Jaroslav Zahradil and Jan Majicek, from the ProAlt group. The union confederation has decided to support the demonstration against the reforms of pensions, health care, taxes and the welfare system proposed by the government, called by ProAlt for 22 October in the centre of Prague.
English: http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/czech-trade-unions-form-alliance ... via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Czech+Republic
On Monday 26 September, hundreds of doctors at university medical clinics across the country began a series of two-hour strikes, ahead of negotiations starting on Thursday 29 September with the wage commission of the federal states (TdL) in Berlin. Doctors at the Heart Centre Munich and the Hannover Medical University started the action in support of the doctors' union Marburger Bund (MB) in an ongoing dispute over pay and conditions. MB demands for about 20,000 doctors a 5% wage increase, a modern pay structure and better pay for night shifts, jointly 6.3% wage rise. Another concern for the MB is the growing number of vacancies at the university clinics as qualified doctors seek better options elsewhere. This trend will increase if working conditions and salary prospects do not improve, according to MB wage expert Lutz Hammerschlag.
English: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110926-37837.html