Collective Bargaining

Local government unions FNV Abvakabo and CNV Publieke Zaak are concerned that municipal employers will go back on their agreement (covering 180,000 public servants) to pay a 1% salary increase in 2011. The rise was dependent on union commitments to negotiate on delivering efficiency savings, reducing bureaucracy and modernizing the collective agreement. The unions are putting forward a range of measures and argue that the employers should take a longer term view rather than just focusing on the need to ensure that short-term efficiency savings justify the 1% pay increase. Despite the tensions, in the 22 March bargaining round both parties decided to continue negotiations.
Englishÿ: http://www.epsu.org/cob/411
Dutch: http://www.abvakabofnv.nl/nieuws/nieuws/onderhandelingen ... http://www.mijnvakbond.nl/Overleg-modernisering-CAO-Gemeenten ...

The four main Lithuanian trade union centres - the Lithuanian Trade Union Confederation, the Lithuanian Labour Federation, the Lithuanian Trade Union ,Solidarumas" and the Lithuanian Journalists' Union - organized a national demonstration in Vilnius on 19 March calling for a higher minimum wage, more progressive taxes, and increases to pensions. In the meeting union leaders encouraged the government to increase the monthly minimum wage up to LTL 1,000 (about €290), referring to the higher statutory minimum wage in Latvia; the current minimum wage in Lithuania is LTL 800 (about €232). Over 2,500 people joined the march including a delegation of 50 from the Lithuanian Energy Workers' Trade Union Federation.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/411; http://www.ldf.lt/index.php?cid=3499

The SKTF white-collar local government union has produced a new report demonstrating how workers doing the same job are on very different salaries, depending on whether they work in a sector dominated by women or men. Taking the example of an economist, the union shows that on average the monthly salary for this occupation is SEK 29,500 (? 3,310) in the municipal sector (dominated by women) but SEK 41,000 (? 4,600) in the private sector (dominated by men). The union argues that on a life-time basis massive differences result between female and male earnings. SKTF is calling for a major initiative, involving employers, trade unions and the government, to address the problem.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/411
Swedish: https://www.sktf.se/Templates/Page____40592.aspx

The workers in the two power plants of the national power company Eesti Energia in the Northeastern town of Narva, organised in the Narva Energia Union, have taken further steps as to realize set a 25% pay rise goal, as it seems that management will not give in. In their 18 March meeting, they decided to form a strike committee. The committee will draw up a plan by April 15 for a full-scale strike. The union chairman, Vladimir Aleksejev, argued: "According to our information, even the most highly skilled workers at the plant such as energy unit operators earn less than a janitor in Finland. This is not acceptable. The company is making huge profits and doesn't want to share them with its employees" (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 February 2011).
English: http://news.err.ee/economy/43c1ab77-3101-4388-9584-8d9a18bdd6f0; http://www.epsu.org/cob/411

Paper sector wage bargaining diverts between unions
March 29, 2011
Second-year salary adjustments for some 20,000 white- and blue-collar pulp and paper workers ran separate courses over the past 12 days, with the Pro union (representing 4,000 salaried professionals) issuing a strike notice on 23 March against one company. A two-week strike will begin on 6 April at all UPM operations if official government mediation beginning today fails. Meanwhile, Paperiliitto, representing 16,000 workers at some 60 paper operations, agreed to terms with the Finnish Forest Industries Federation (FFIF) on 16 March. Workers will receive a guaranteed 2.5%, or €0.41-per-hour increase. The union also granted other adjustments in the collective agreement. Pro gave the strike warning because FFIF refused to put forward a similar national pay offer as the one given to and accepted by Paperiliitto.
English: http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4342-Finnish-Paper-Sector ...
Union reports slow progress on equal pay
March 22, 2011
A review of progress by the JHL public and welfare sector union towards closing the gender pay gap reveals that reforming pay structures has had some impact in this respect but mainly for higher paid workers. Progress towards the common goal of government and social partners set, as to bring down the gender pay gap from 19.1% in 2006 to 15% in 2015, is stagnating as the pay gap in 2009 was still 18.2%. The union review points to the heavily gendered segmentation of the Finnish labour market. It also shows that equality plans have been positive in terms of work-life balance and issues like discrimination and harassment, but have not made much difference in terms of pay. The key challenge set by the union is to be able to compare pay across different collective agreements.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/411 http://www.jhl.fi/portal/en/news/archive/?bid=931

PCS, the civil service union, reports that around a third of its members in different government departments are currently voting on industrial action in response to a range of threats to jobs and working conditions as pressure mounts from public sector spending cuts. The union may also ballot for national industrial action over cuts and proposed changes to public sector pensions. This could be co-ordinated with other public sector unions. About 80,000 PCS members are already being balloted, notably in the HM Revenue and Customs and the Home Office.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/411 http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/id ...

A new collective agreement covering 585,000 employees in regional government has been approved by collective bargaining committee of the ver.di services union. The union negotiators were backed by warning strikes at the end of February and the beginning of March in Dsseldorf, Saarbrcken and Frankfurt, in which around 15,000 regional government employees were involved. There will be a lump sum payment of €360 (?120 for trainees) plus a pay increase of 1.5% from 1 April this year. Ver.di estimates this to be worth around 2.3% overall. There will be a further pay increase on 1 January 2012, consisting of 1.9% plus €17 (?6 for trainees) that ver.di calculates as an overall increase of 2.55%. The union also believes that a new pay structure, coming into effect from 1 January 2012, will mean that workers moving more rapidly to the next grade and that around two-thirds of employees should benefit directly from that change. Ver.di President Frank Bsirske called the result "quite acceptable, because as it stands now the real wages can be ensured". Yet, Bsirske regretted that the federal states are sticking to their refusal of integrating improvements negotiated for teachers in the collective scales. Teachers, organized in the Education and Science Workers' Union (GEW), took a quite active part in the warning strikes (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 December 2010 and Year 4 January 2011).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/411; http://www.epsu.org/cob/409 http://www.thelocal.de/money/20110311-33653.html http://www.ei-ie.org/news/news_details/1690
German: http://presse.verdi.de/pressemitteilungen/showNews?id= ...

The main trade union confederations organized a demonstration in Bucharest on 16 March in protest at changes to the labour code prepared by the government, in consultation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the employers. The changes include: no collective agreements at national level, cross-sectoral or sectoral; greater possibilities to use temporary contracts; discretionary lay-offs, decided unilaterally by the employer, without prior notice; and pay and conditions set unilaterally by employers. The confederations are collecting signatures for a general strike that could be organized in April-May this year. They have also announced that they are going to send complaints to the European Commission and the European Court of Human Rights (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 February 2011).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/411Romanian: http://www.cartel-alfa.ro/default.asp?nod=20&info=47921

On 10 and 11 March, the ver.di services union organized warning strikes in 12 clinics belonging to the Helios group. The aim of the strikes was to show the strength of feeling of workers in the lead up to the third round of bargaining with the company, which has 17,000 employees across Germany and is part of the Fresenius health conglomerate. Ver.di had become frustrated by the employer's failure to come up with a pay offer and is demanding a range of measures in a package worth around 7%. This includes increases in pay, including payments to trainees, along with higher rates for on-call and night work.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/411
German: http://presse.verdi.de/pressemitteilungen/showNews?id= ...

The FP-CGIL public service federation has called a public sector-wide strike for 25 March calling for renegotiation of collective agreements and measures to tackle precarious employment. This is in response to the government's decision to freeze agreements for three years. The FP-CISL and UIL federations are not taking part in the strike as they have signed an agreement with the government which they argue protects pay and conditions. Earlier in March, on Friday 11, a nationwide walkout of public servants brought large parts of the countries to a standstill. The strike included workers in mass transit, airports, utilities, universities, local and provincial governments, social services, tax offices, clinics, ferries and even in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's office, it was reported. Only schools were exempt.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/409 http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/03/12/Public-worker-strike ...
Italian: http://www.fpcgil.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/16770 http://www.fp.cisl.it/fp_nuovo/

Thousands of people joined the national protest on the Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon on 19 March, organised by the CGTP-IN union confederation. The demonstration brought together trade unions from both public and private sectors. The unions will follow this up 1 April, National Youth Day, with action focusing in particular on youth unemployment, and 2 April, focusing on education.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/411; http://www.epsu.org/cob/409
Portuguese: http://www.stal.pt/index.php?option=com_content& ...