According to the president of the main private sector confederation GSEE, the unions will strike in June to protest pension reform. Moreover, they are trying to mobilise workers across Europe to take joint action against austerity measures. The unions want the strike to coincide with the debate of the pension bill in parliament. "We will certainly strike against the pension reform as the bill is discussed in parliament. We'll be pushing until the end to prevent the worse,"ÿ GSEE president Yannis Panagopoulos said. Parliament is expected to vote on the pension bill, which raises the retirement age and curtails early pensions, sometime in Juneÿ; the pension bill is part of a Euro 110 billion EU/IMF rescue deal agreed in May.
English: http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-48874320100528 via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Greece
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Following several months of negotiations and many strikes, a draft agreement is on the table between Carrefour Belgium and the SETCA-BBTK, CNE-CSC, and LBC-NVK unions. In the unions internal processes of consultation are on their way for its adoption. Whereas Carrefour initially intended to close or franchise 28 stores, 12 have been rescued with 900 jobs; 16 supermarkets will be transferred to the Belgian chain Mestdagh. There will be no forced lay-offs. The collective agreement specific to Carrefour Hypermarkets, that is more advantageous for the workers, will be respected. Also, the necessary savings on the company side will be realised without questioning existing social achievements. For the next six years, the employer will guarantee a minimum number of jobs, including penalties for non-compliance (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 February and April 2010).
English: http://www.uniglobalunion.org/Apps/iportal.nsf/pages/homeEn
Tens of thousands of workers, mainly from the public sector, staged a show of force on May 27 against President Sarkozy's plans to make the French work a couple of years more before retirement. Strikes delayed flights and commuter services as well as closing schools, and according to the organising unions the 176 protest manifestations across the country were attended by about one million people. The target of the protest day was the goal of the Sarkozy administration, confirmed this week, of raising the retirement age from 60 to 62 or 63. The socialist opposition has sided with the unions in rejecting any compromise. They are arguing that, despite France's huge debts and Europe's financial crisis, retirement at 60 is a precious right that especially protects manual workers.
English: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7138112.ece; http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/05/27/french-retirement-age-strikes.html
French: http://www.cgt.fr/spip.php?article37408
SIPTU, the country's largest union, has launched an initiative aimed at encouraging workers to use hotels which offer agreed levels of pay and conditions to staff for family holidays, short breaks, conferences and meetings. More than 40 hotels which recognise trade unions for collective bargaining and which have signed agreements governing terms and conditions for workers have been set out in the "fair hotels" campaign. Speaking at the launch, president of SIPTU and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), Jack O'Connor, said unions which have endorsed the campaign would be giving their business for conferences and meetings to hotels in the new scheme. The campaign is supported by the UIF, the federation of food, farm and hotel workers worldwide.
English: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0526/1224271144004.html; http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/392
GS, the union for the forestry, wood and graphical industries, has decided to begin strike action in the forest industry on 1 June, following no progress in the negotiations with the employers' organisation SLA on the collective agreement, expiring 31 May and covering 3,000 workers. The key issue for the union is the definition of workers in forestry which, if the employers get their way, will lead to widespread casualisation. Employers may then hire any individual as a so-called "individual entrepreneur." "This is absolutely unacceptable, it affects our members' future," said Tommy Andersson, GS vice-president.
English: http://www.bwint.org/default.asp?Index=2742&Language=EN
The food industry strike threatening to start at midnight Monday 24 May was averted literally at the eleventh hour when both employees' and employers' unions accepted the mediation proposal of Esa Lonka, the country's national conciliator. The Finnish Food Workers' Union (SEL) only barely approved the final proposal by 17 votes to 16. The new collective agreement is to remain in force until the end of March 2014, and includes a wage increase in the first year of 1.5%, to be implemented by 1 June 2010 and 1 October 2010. Index-related pay hikes will follow. In addition, the system of seniority rights will be improved. The agreement covers the bakery, meat procesing, dairy, food industry, and beer and beverage branches. SEL's chairman Veli-Matti Kuntonen considered the new agreement "an achievement regarding the proposed working time deteriorations," adding: "The outcome is below what we were set out to reach, but even within this context there is some improvement" (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 April 2010).
English: message of EUCOBAN network of EMF / EFFAT / ETUF-TCL / EMCEF; http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/domestic-news/business/11183-finnish-food-industry ...; http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/05/food_industry_strike_cancelled_deal_reached ...
The United Union of Aviation Workers has announced to ask the chief prosecutor and the Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority to prosecute Malv Hungarian Airlines in the case of the missing HUF 812 million (Euro 2.9 million). In June 2009 PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) refused to comment on the company's 2007 annual report, starting that Malv had paid this amount to a charter company without proving the delivery of services. PwC did not receive any certificates as to ascertain these expenses. Malv (re-nationalised in February 2010) said that Martin Gauss, the company CEO started to screen in 2009 as to explore past unfavourable contracts, and in March 2010 made a complaint at the National Bureau of Investigation (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 April 2010).
English: M t Komiljovics, union correspondent
Following a key court ruling and further clarification from the Labour Relations Commission (LRC), the executive of the IMPACT public service union has decided that it will recommend its members to accept the public service ("Croke Park") agreement proposed by the government. The court ruled that important parts of an existing agreement covering performance management, outsourcing guarantees, premium pay rates and other issues would continue to be valid. The LRC also confirmed that unions would be fully consulted over the implementation of redeployment and restructuring under the public service agreement. The SIPTU general union had already indicated support for the agreement and is currently consulting members while the CPSU civil service union had recommended that its members vote to reject the "Croke Park" agreement. In an effort to win support for the pay deal, the government decided not to proceed with any pension reforms until after December 2014, when the agreement runs out. Increases in pensions for retired public sector workers are linked to salary rises in their previous post. The government indicated it was going to look at linking public sector pensions to the cost of living (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 April 2010).
English: http://www.siptu.ie/PressRoom/NewsReleases/2010/Name,11513,en.html; http://www.independent.ie/national-news/fg-wont-honour-pension-uturn-in-croke-park ...
In February 2010, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CITUB) and the Confederation of Labour Podkrepa expressed their discontent with the implementation of the government's anti-crisis programme. They initiated negotiations with the six representative employer organisations, and in March the social partners submitted a package of 50 short-term anti-crisis measures to the government. On March 30, subsequent negotiations in the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation (NCTC) ended up in an agreement on 59 anti-crisis measures. The 60th measure was proposed by the government covering that the employer would pay for the first two days of sick leave and that the third day would be at the expense of the employee. The trade unions opposed this proposal, claiming that it violates the social rights of employees. In late April, the government frustrated the partnership just created when it tried to implement the 60th measure unilaterally and also proposed new measures for unused paid leave. This move generated fierce opposition by the trade unions.
English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2010/04/articles/bg1004019i.htm
The government has announced that it wants to make deep cuts in public spending in 2011 to avoid having to call on the IMF (International Monetary Fund) for further loans. Resulting from the letter of intent between the IMF and the government, the total public sector pay bill should be cut by 25% from 1 June 2010 on, the minimum wage also by 25%, and pensions and unemployment benefits both by 15%. In the list of government proposals are also the firing of 250,000 people, the closing of 200 hospitals and scores of schools, and the "flexibility" of the Labor Code in order to facilitate the massive layoffs. The first to take the streets were pensioners, on 12 May. On 17 May they were followed by mothers with babies, who will see their maternity benefits cut by 25%. A protest on 19 May organised by the main five union confederations according to the organizers brought 70,000 people in front of the government building in Bucharest. Four major unions have issued warnings for a general strike beginning 31 May. The five confederations proposed a package of measures that would reduce the social effects of the crisis, among other things the establishment of the minimum wage of 705 lei as a measure to reduce tax evasion.
English: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51543; http://perc.ituc-csi.org/spip.php?article406