The five trade union confederations, the Cartel Alfa National Trade Union Confederation, the National Trade Union Bloc (BNS), the Fratia National Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Romania (CNSLR), the Confederation of Democratic Trade Unions of Romania (CSDR) and the Meridian National Trade Union Confederation, on 27 October organised a protest march and rally in Bucharest during the parliamentary debate and vote on the opposition's no-confidence motion (which the government coalition was to survive). Leader of the Cartel Alfa, Bogdan Iuliu Hossu, explained that the union confederations decided to organise the extensive demonstration after they had talked about the union claims with the representatives of the government and with parliament delegates. Dumitru Costin, BNS president, confirmed that the talks did not result in solutions for meeting the union claims.
English: http://www.actmedia.eu/2010/10/27/top+story/trade+union+protest+rally+and+march+today+in+bucharest+/30288; http://www.actmedia.eu/2010/10/28/top+story/romania+government+survives+austerity+confidence+vote/30314
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On Tuesday 12 October, Prime Minister Petr Necas met with national and public sector union leaders concerning their threat of strike action over government plans to cut wages and shake up wage scales. Necas offered to leave current wage scales as they are but pledged to go ahead with the government's plans to cut wages in the civil service in 2011 by 10%, either through job losses or pay cuts. He added that the budget for state employees would not be touched from 2012 to 2014. Some union leaders indicated directly after the meeting that the government's offer changed little. Meanwhile, in the 15 October elections with 41 out of 81 seats the opposition Social Democrats gained a majority in the Senate, the upper house of parliament, and political analysts have suggested that this triumph could impact austerity measures and reforms put forward by the government.
English: http://www.praguemonitor.com/2010/10/13/govt-not-give-unions-wages-be-cut; http://www.radio.cz/en/news#2; http://www.radio.cz/en/section/news/news-2010-10-24
The Unite union reports that 8,500 managers based in head offices at the Royal Mail, Parcelforce and the Post Office will vote on whether to launch a campaign of industrial action over forced redundancies. The ballot is being held in protest at plans to make between 1,500 managers redundant, of which between 300 and 400 managers will be have to go compulsorily. Paul Reuter, national officer for Unite, said: "Managers are so concerned about their futures that for the first time in over 30 years they will vote on industrial action. Unite will not allow managers to be forced out because of the poor decisions made at the very top of Royal Mail Group."
English: http://www.uniglobalunion.org/Apps/iportal.nsf/pages/homeEn?OpenDocument&exURL=http://www.uniglobalunion.org/Apps/UNINews.nsf/vwLkpById/D9451EBF5CF2DFE1C12577C800692037?Opendocument
Bosch, the German auto parts and power tools group, decided Tuesday 26 October to raise pay for 85,000 workers two months earlier to thank them for concessions which have helped turn the company's results around. Bosch top management and its supervisory board decided to apply a 2.7% wage increase in February 2011 instead of in April, a company statement said, quoting personnel director Wolfgang Malchow saying, "In difficult times we benefited from the strong loyalty of our staff." Helga Schwitzer of the IG Metall union reacted that the decision was fair, "workers will thus share in the growth."
English: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20101026-30761.html
A new group of employees have won their first collective agreement. The agreement, in force from 1 December 2010 to 30 April 2012, covers almost 1,000 personal helpers attending to seriously disabled persons. The agreement regulates compensation for overtime, evening, night and Saturday work, for working hours, and many other issues. Helpers earn between Euro 7 and 10 per hour. Under the agreement, the employees are represented by the union for the public and welfare sectors, JHL, and the employers by the Personal Helpers' Employer Association, Heta. Heta's members are disabled persons who employ personal helpers independently.
English: http://www.jhl.fi/portal/en/news/archive/?bid=479
In the morning of Tuesday 26 October rail passengers in various regions faced delays as transportation unions held a warning strike, calling for greater wage equality. They say private rail operators pay significantly less than national operator Deutsche Bahn. Rail unions Transnet and GDBA were asking for pay rises from six regional operators, stating that Abellio, Benex, Keolis, Veolia,ÿHessische Landesbahn and Arrivaÿpay staff as much as 20% less than the national operator pays its rail workers. Unions have warned that further strikes could be staged if a deal will not be reached. The strike, involving about 1,600 workers, ended on Tuesday afternoon.
English: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6150094,00.html
German: http://www.boeckler.de/show_chronik.html?chronik_eintrag=/html/109521.html
Public and private sector unions have managed to mobilise millions of people in protest against the government's planned pension changes. An estimated 3.5 million joined the latest protests with demonstrations and strikes taking place across the country, with many university and school students joining the action. With the pension bill through the Senate and set to be signed into law the last week of October, on Monday 25 October CFDT union leader Francois Chereque and Laurence Parisot, head of the MEDEF employers' group, said on television they were open to talks on youth and senior citizen employment (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 May, June, July-August and September 2010).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/384; http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE69O1DE20101026
French: http://www.cgt.fr/spip.php?article37842; http://www.force-ouvriere.fr/page_principal/semaine/index.asp?id=2076&2010/10/20/Retraites-L-epreuve-de-force-se-poursuit-sur-le-terrain
Government attempts to implement cutbacks in line with European Commission (EC) demands will result in permanent damage to the fabric of society, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), David Begg, told a conference of economists. Begg said he did "not subscribe to the accepted orthodoxy that the budget deficit must be reduced to 3% by 2014", as demanded by the European Commission. The ICTU leader said the 2014 deadline was "arbitrary", adding "more importantly they cannot be attained without doing permanent damage to our economy and the fabric of our society". Some days earlier the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) warned the Croke Park agreement may have to be torn up as the economy faces massive cutbacks of €15 billion to correct the budget deficit: twice the sum agreed by the government and the EC under the 2014 deadline. ESRI report author Ide Kearney said that unemployment could stay above 10% indefinitely if the economy gets stifled under the burden of budget cutbacks. She suggested the timeframe to correct the deficit to be extended to 2016. Co-author Alan Barrett said not to be convinced that Ireland would further damage its credibility with the markets if a longer adjustment time was negotiated with the EC.
English: http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/ictu-warns-cutbacks-will-damage-society-134485.html; http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/esri-warns-croke-park-deal-may-have-to-be-scrapped-134117.html
ADEDY, the civil service union federation, organised a strike on 7 October against the government's austerity measures and its agreement with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which was supported by thousands of civil servants. One element of the agreement is a reform of the public sector pay system; however, ADEDY does not want to enter into talks on this unless the government reverses the cuts in public sector pay implemented earlier in 2010. After a 24-hours' railway strike on Thursday 14 October, starting Monday 25 October a series of rail strikes are planned (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 September 2010).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/384; http://greece.greekreporter.com/2010/10/07/strike-against-austerity-thousands-hit-streets/;
http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/newsbriefs/setimes/newsbriefs/2010/10/14/nb-02; http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/greek-strikes-halt-train-services/article1771151/
Union activists have taken part in a series of protests across the UK as part of a union campaign against the government's spending cuts. On Wednesday 20 October, Chancellor (Finance Minister) George Osborne announced deep public spending cuts. About half a million public sector jobs are likely to be lost as part of the cuts - the deepest and most wide-ranging by a British government in decades. Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union general secretary Bob Crow told a London rally collective action was needed to fight the cuts. He said the movement needed to be built up "into the housing estates, into the workplaces, into every part of society and say we aren't paying the price for the corruption of the bankers" (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 September 2010).
English: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11612012