The European Day of Action in Spain took the form of a general strike, taking tens of thousands to the streets. The first general strike since 2002 set off demonstrations in more than 80 cities and towns to protest the austerity measures imposed by the Socialist Zapatero government. At midday, the two main union confederations said the strike was being heeded by 70% of employees and was a clear signal to the government to retract the reforms. By contrast, Labour Minister Celestino Corbacho said the strike had wide support in manufacturing, the automobile sector and in ports, but moderate backing in health, education, catering and the retail sector. "The strike was not called to topple the government, but it's up to the government if it wants to stay there," argued Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, leader of the CCOO union confederation, "If the government doesn't rectify, it is taking a suicidal path."
English: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article ...
via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Spain
Special focus(Bargaining to exit the crisis in the private industry
Search results
Find articles
On 28 September, unions and management at car producer Ford in Genk signed an agreement guaranteeing job security until 2020. The unions have agreed to put their signature to a savings plan. In return the management is offering the workforce job security to 4,500 workers; the plant will assemble three new models, versions of the Mondeo, Galaxy and S-Max. Personnel costs will be cut by 12%. In the years to come wage increases will be 2% lower than envisaged, and facilities such as free company coach travel and the works canteen will be scrapped. Rohnny Champagne of the ABVV Metal Union said that the workforce was in broad agreement with the plan, though some people were unhappy about the loss of wage increases. He added that the promise of job security until 2020 of course made the medicine more acceptable. If one of the three new models planned for the plant is not a success, a fourth new model is held in prospect.
Dutch: http://www.abvvmetaal.be/index.php?option .
Special focus(Bargaining to exit the crisis in the private industry
According to recent research based on the continuous WageIndicator web survey (in Germany called Lohnspiegel), wholesale dealers (Grosshandelskaufleute) earn considerably more if covered by a collective agreement than their colleagues not covered by collective agreement. Based on answers of about 1,500 respondents, it has been calculated that this occupational group earned on average gross monthly Euro 2,881 if covered by agreement, or 13% more than the non-covered (Euro 2,508). About 26% of the responding wholesale dealers were women; they earned on average Euro 432 or 16% less than their male colleagues (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 March 2010).
German: http://www.lohnspiegel.de/main/zusatzinformationen/grosshandelskaufleute
The Ver.di services union has criticised the government for not maintaining the provision of training in elder care. The union points out that over 14,000 people, over half of whom were on state benefits, had benefited from training in elder care. Ver.di sees this as successful both in terms of helping the unemployed get new skills and find jobs but also in beginning to address what is a growing problem of staff shortages in the care sector. However, the government has decided not to continue the training scheme beyond the end of 2010.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/379#a6850
German: http://presse.verdi.de/pressemitteilungen/showNews .
Special focus(Bargaining to exit the crisis in the private industry
From 20 September on, union confederations and public sector unions jointly organised a week of protest throughout the country against the government's austerity measures as well as the 25% cuts in public sector pay, that the government in June imposed by law with effect from 2 July and applying until 31 December 2010. The key demands were for pay cuts to be rescinded and for a stop on planned redundancies. The demonstrators also protested against the changes in the Labour Code and the new Pension Law. It has been estimated that 34,000 public servants took part in strikes during the week of protest. On 27 September, Interior Minister Vasile Blaga announced his resignation after 6,000 police officers, angry over a 25% wage cut, marched to the presidential palace.
English: http://www.financiarul.ro/2010/09/21/trade-unionists ...
http://www.balkans.com/open-news.php?uniquenumber=72502
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Romanias-Interior-Minister ...
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2010/08/articles/ro1008019i.htm
Special focus(Bargaining to exit the crisis in the private industry
The largest public sector union, UNISON, has warned that the battle for public services could tie up Britain's legal system for decades with court claims against employers for failing to carry out equality impact assessments before cutting jobs and public services. Councils have spent years dealing with legal challenges to settle equal pay claims and union leaders warned they were ready to open a new front. The union has more than 30,000 equal pay claims live in the courts against more than 300 councils and 200 NHS trusts. Dave Prentis, UNISON general secretary, said: "The vast majority of our members are women and we have spent decades fighting for equal pay and to ensure that women are treated fairly in the workplace. We will not stand back and see all that work undone by councils cutting jobs indiscriminately."
English: http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?method=news.detail&id=92064
via http://www.labourstart.org.uk/
Special focus(Bargaining to exit the crisis in the private industry
On 9 October, the CISL and UIL confederations will be demonstrating in Rome to call for an extensive reform of the Italian tax system. The key issues of the joint platform include: a stronger commitment and more effective controls to fight tax evasion and tax fraud; less taxation on employees' wages and pensions, and automatic adjustments linked to the Ipca index to neutralize fiscal drag. The confederations stress that the current priority is not wage moderation, but higher pay by lowering taxation and using the productivity lever. According to the new bargaining system part of the savings obtained in each public administration by reorganizing service provision can be used for additional salaries and particularly to reward increases in productivity. Since last year, productivity payments enjoy a 10% fiscal benefit, but only in the private sector, and the CISL public sector federation wants these benefits to be extended to public workers.
English and Italian: report CISL FP International Office (Mirko Checcacci)
On 27 September, tens of thousands of workers, including police, medical staff, journalists, customs officers and firefighters, launched an open-ended work-to-rule Monday in protest against government's austerity measures. About 80,000 employees, representing 21 unions, took part in the protest, in particular in Ljubljana. Instead of demonstrating, they performed the legally required minimum of work. Public sector union leader Janez Posedi said the unions want Prime Minister Borut Pahor's centre-left cabinet to abandon plans to freeze public sector wages until 2012.
English: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news ...
via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Slovenia
On 13 September, pilots of Malv Hungarian Airlines held a two-hour warning strike at Budapest Ferihegy Airport, in front of the terminal. The strike was held between 10 and 12 AM, deliberately in order to cause minor delays, as the union of pilots HUNALPA explained. According to the union the strike was a protest against the failure of talks with the Malv management on a collective agreement. After the warning strike, an agreement has been concluded.
English: M t Komiljovics, union correspondent
Special focus(Bargaining to exit the crisis in the private industry
On 22 September, around 5,000 public service workers, including policemen and firefighters, protested in central Warsaw against plans to freeze their salaries in 2011. The protesters marched to parliament where they handed in a petition demanding a repeal of austerity measures planned in the 2011 draft budget. "The government's idea of freezing wages is ridiculous. Who will do the work of the police, the fire service or the public administration? In two or three years they will have all moved to work in the private sector instead," said Robert Osmycki, head of the firefighters' section of the Solidarity union, "Who then will provide security for the state and for society?" It may be noted that Poland has weathered the global financial crisis relatively well, with GDP growth expected to exceed 3% in 2010, though the centre-right government is struggling with a budget deficit of about 7% of GDP (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 July-August 2010).
English: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp ...
via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Poland