Collective Bargaining

On 23 March, pilots and flight attendants of the Hungarian airline company Mal‚v staged a two-hour warning strike to put pressure on an agreement on more favourable rest hours. Tam s Ov ri, president of the Hungarian Airline Pilots' Association (Hunalpa), reiterated that the strike was not about higher wages, but only to reach an agreement on rest hours. The union demand is that the minimum time of rest for the crew be extended by two hours relative to the minimum under European Union rules (after 12 hours of work).
English: M t‚ Komiljovics, union correspondent; http://www.caboodle.hu/nc/news/news_archive/single_page/article/11 ...

After the third bargaining round, negotiations on a new supermarket collective agreement for the supermarkets (240,000 employed) are still lingering on. According to unionists, the employer delegation refused to discuss age discrimination and the future of the youth subminimum wage and also refused to talk about non-compliance with the current agreement, two issues that remain crucial for the unions.
Dutch: http://www.fnvbondgenoten.nl/nieuws/331677_enquete_supermarkt_cao/

On Monday 28 March the GDL train drivers' trade union launched another warning strike on the train network run by six regional and privately-owned companies (Abellio, Arriva, Benex, Keolis, Veolia and Hessische Landesbahn), demanding that all rail workers be paid equally. Earlier GDL-led strikes took place on 22 February and in mid-March. This strike hit traffic in Berlin and in the eastern federal states Brandenburg and Saxony. While negotiations with national rail provider Deutsche Bahn were said to be making progress over the weekend, the union has been unhappy with efforts by private rail companies (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 January 2011).
English: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20110328-34005.html

Upwards of a half million people marched through London on Saturday 26 March in a turnout that the organizing trade unions said exceeded their highest predictions. The manifestation was called "The March for the Alternative: Cuts are not the Cure" and was direct push-back to the deep and rapid public sector cuts in the pipeline by the ruling Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition. The mass manifestation validated the resistance against the government agenda. At the rally, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "We will fight these savage cuts and we will not let them destroy services, jobs, and lives." Unite the Union General Secretary Len McCluskey said there is "palpable anger in the country. If the government was brave enough, it would tackle the tax avoidance that robs the British taxpayer." Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis, whose public-sector union chartered 500 coaches to get people to London, told the assembled at Hyde Park that he wants the government "to feel the fear and anger of people who have come here today from every part of the UK to vent their frustration and to stand up for a fairer future." One week before the demonstration a survey by public service unions Unison and PCS revealed that thousands of public servants have already to tighten their belts. The unions surveyed over 10,000 public sector workers with over 70% saying they have already cut back on their food shopping while spending on a range of other items, including healthcare, has also been reduced.
English: http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4335-500-000-Protest-Con-Dem ... http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2236 http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2229

Airport workers have called off 22 days of strikes which threatened to cause major disruption over the Easter holidays and into the summer. Union members voted to cancel the strike after have received guarantees over job security and conditions. The strikes were called over concerns about the part-privatisation of national airport operator Aena. Union leaders said about 70% of their more than 10,000 members voted to call off the industrial action.
English: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12868729

On 25 March, the three main union federations organised a four-hour national stoppage in the EON energy company. The strike was in protest at the company's failure to discuss its long-term strategy and ensure, what the unions argue, would be adequate investments to protect employment in the company. According to union information about 80% of the workforce took part in the stoppage. On the same day as the strike, a union delegation met with representatives of the Ministry of Economic Development, and won two important commitments: first, there will be a ministerial forum set up to deal with the current dispute, and secondly, the government will establish a permanent forum for consultation on the entire electricity sector to monitor and find solutions to the problems facing Italy, giving effect to the joint notice clauses included in recently signed new contracts.
Italian: http://www.filctemcgil.it/index.php?option=com_flexi ...ÿ

After the large national strike and demonstration, strike in protest over the austerity measures taken and planned by the current government have continued in various sectors. For instance, on Thursday 17 March journalists and public transport workers embarked on a 24-hour strike. The strike led to a news blackout and extensive traffic disruptions. Television channels aired pre-recorded material, radio stations played back-to-back music and newspapers were not published on the next Friday (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 September, October, November and December 2010; Year 4 January and February 2011).
English: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_16 ...

The conditions which led some 60 years ago to the establishment of a system for setting minimum pay and conditions for 190,000 vulnerable low-paid workers still exist, an industrial relations expert has told the Commercial Court. Dr Michelle O'Sullivan of the University of Limerick said only 6% of workers in the catering sector are unionized and the joint labour committee (JLC) system provided a negotiating forum for workers who would otherwise not have one. Workers in the catering sector have the lowest average earnings of any sector, she added. She had concluded from a study of the JLC system that it benefited not only vulnerable workers but also employers as it created a level playing field and guarded against undercutting of wages among employers and erosion of standards in areas such as the security industry. The system also provided for minimum working conditions tailored to particular industries and not available in other legislation, she said. She agreed aspects of the system required modernisation. Dr O'Sullivan was giving evidence in the action by fast-food operators challenging the constitutionality of the laws under which minimum pay and conditions are set under employment regulation orders (ERO's) proposed by JLCs for approval by the Labour Court. Unions are concerned about drastic economic measures that could include abolition of ERO's. They are currently under review but if abolished for example cleaners may see their minimum hourly rate cut from €9.50 to €7.65 -- the new, lowered statutory minimum wage rate (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 January and February 2011).
English: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0324 . http://www.siptu.ie/PressRoom/NewsReleases/2011/Name,12141,en.html http://www.epsu.org/cob/409

The nurses union in Poland (OZZPiP) has sent a letter to the civil rights ombudsman demanding intervention in a dispute where five nurses are on hunger strike and occupying the gallery in the parliament building in Warsaw. "A hunger strike and occupation of Parliament in going on in the middle of Europe and the Ombudsman will not speak on this issue," OZZPiP president Dorota Gardias told Polish Radio. The nurses are protesting a new draft law on medical services, which introduces labour contracts for staff instead of permanent forms of employment.ÿThe union is objecting to the contracts, which they say lead to exploitation of nurses who have fewer rights, longer working hours and less quality time for patients. Union president Gardias argued the government cannot introduce such basic changes to the country's health care system without prior dialogue with health professionals and patients.
English: http://www.thenews.pl/national/artykul151911_hunger-striking-nurses . via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Poland

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has ruled out reversing a 5% pay cut for around 17,000 low-paid school secretaries and non-teaching staff imposed at the beginning of 2011. Around 500 secretaries belonging to the IMPACT trade union have already voted to take industrial action over the pay cut. They point out that their pay is being cut despite the fact that they do not enjoy any of the benefits of public servants, including pensions - and that many are earning little more than the minimum wage. The row arose after the Department of Education and Skills instructed all schools and VECs to impose pay cuts of 5% on up to 17,000 low-paid non-teaching staff, to match last year's public service pay cuts. However, an anomaly arose for school secretaries hired after 1990 - as they are employed by individual schools and VECs, and are paid out of a grant to school boards.
English: http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0324/secretaries.html