In Helsinki over 700 bus drivers have begun a strike on Wednesday 28 April, planning to return to work on Friday 30. The strike is a protest against their employer's unilateral announcement to replace the company-specific collective agreement by the bus traffic national collective agreement. The announcement came as a total surprise to the drivers, who accuse the employer (Helsingin Bussiliikenne Oy, owned by the City of Helsinki) of "agreement shopping", thus breaking the legislation on mandatory company-level consultation and undermining drivers' annual leave rights and present work schedules. The current agreement expires on 30 April 30 and is signed by the JHL union, the union for the public and welfare sectors, whereas the bus traffic national collective agreement is signed by the AKT union, organising transport workers and employees in the tourism industry.
English: http://www.artto.kaapeli.fi/unions/T2010/jhl06
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Public service unions have made clear that they are unhappy about government proposals to change the pension age and calculation. The CGT local government federation wants to retain the right to retire at 60 and a pension worth 75% of salary after a full career. It also calls on the government to organise negotiations involving all public service federations. FO's civil service federation has attacked the conclusions of a report from the Pensions Advisory Council. The federation challenges some of the assumptions used in the Council's forecasts, claiming that it has tried to paint a negative picture to help justify further pension reforms. The CFDT also wants to retain 60 as the pension age and has criticised the government for trying to push through reforms too quickly and so not allowing enough time for proper consultation and negotiation. UNSA presented the government with a range of proposals to improve the financing of pensions but these were all rejected by the government (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 February and March 2010).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/364;
French: http://www.spterritoriaux.cgt.fr/spip.php?article3963; http://www.fo-fonctionnaires.fr/flashinfo-suite.html; http://www.cfdt.fr/rewrite/article/25703/actualites/retraites:le-gouvernement-propose ...
Airbus workers across France halted work on Monday 26 April to highlight their demands for better pay and more staff. They continued to do so for the next three days. Thousands of workers in Toulouse, Nantes and Saint-Nazaire stopped working and blocked the delivery of airplane parts. Production of the A330 and A340 is to be disrupted and rotating strikes will affect production of the A320 and the A380 as well. Management is offering a 1.9% wage increase for this year but the unions want a 3.5% hike. Unions are also calling for new positions to be created after a restructuring plan in 2007 cut 10,000 jobs. Airbus hired 1,700 new people in 2009 and is adding another 1,500 this year.
English: http://www.heralddeparis.com/france-airbus-workers-down-tools-2/85367; http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100429-716747.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLEHeadlinesEurope via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=France;
French: http://www.toulouseblog.fr/article-9177-greve_chez_airbus_quelle_suite.html
The second round of bargaining over the AVE (energy) sectoral agreement failed to produce a result. The employers, dominated by E.ON, offered a 2.3% increase. However, the ver.di union wants a 5.5% increase over 12 months for the 30,000 employees covered by the agreement, and was not impressed by the offer. Ver.di argues that the employers remain highly profitable and have not suffered as much from the crisis as other sectors. Bargaining resumes on 5 May.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/364;
German: http://presse.verdi.de/pressemitteilungen/showNews?id=4c988406-4ebb-11df- .
The government austerity plan, designed to cut the budget deficit to 2.8% of gross domestic product in 2013, includes freezing public sector wages, capping recruitment and privatising several public companies. In response, the public transport workers joined postal workers, who on Monday 26 April started a strike set to continue until May 7. "We question whether it should be the workers who pay for this crisis. We don't think it should be, it cannot only be the workers who pay," said Manuel Leal, spokesman for the Fedtrans transport union. According to the unions involved, some 20,000 workers took strike action from 26 to 28 April at 16 public transport companies affecting around one million passengers. Parliament administration workers started their strike on Wednesday 28 April, whereas truckers' unions plan a walkout in May.
English: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE63Q1P720100427 via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Portugal
Postal workers have voted to accept a deal on pay, hours and conditions, ending the long-running Royal Mail dispute. In October 2009, postal workers staged a series of strikes in a bitter row over job losses and working conditions. On 27 April, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) announced its members backed the agreement by two to one. The agreement includes a three-year wage rise worth 6.9%, while further payments will accompany the phased introduction of change in the workplace. The working week will reduce by one hour with no loss of pay. Job security guarantees include full-time staff making up at least 75% of the workforce. CWU stated over the next three years, modern machinery and improved operational methods will be introduced and a "culture of co-operation" will see the union fully involved with the phasing in of each stage. Dave Ward, CWU's deputy General Secretary, commented: "The deal recognises the importance of staff in successfully implementing change and rewarding people for the work" (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 2 October 2009).
English: http://www.cwu.org/royal-mail-dispute.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/apr/27/royal-mail-postal-workers
The labour dispute in the food industry continued. On Monday 26 April, the Finnish Food Workers' Union (SEL) rejected a mediation proposal put forward by National Conciliator Esa Lonka. The union claimed the proposal lacked crucial improvements and undermined benefits. ETL, the employers' association, approved the proposal and began a lockout affecting around 18,000 union workers at 235 establishments, to continue until Wednesday 28 April. However,. less than two hours after it began ETL surprisingly announced that the lockout would end at 10 pm Tuesday 27. During that time, workers will not receive pay. Now the union argues that the management cannot unilaterally change the end of the lockout without consulting the union. The two sides are negotiating the lockout's impact on annual leave and holiday benefits under the national mediator. The owners' side said that it was cutting the lockout short in order to ensure the availability of groceries ahead of the May Day holiday weekend. It was also reacting to the union's announcement of more rolling strikes in May. Union members have already staged two strikes during the dispute, and are planning a major one beginning May 11.
English: http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/04/food_industry_negotiators_debate_lockout ...; http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/04/responses_expected_to_mediation_proposal_in ... via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Finland
The German Food and Allied Workers (NGG) have secured an agreement with Coca-Cola's German bottler Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetraenke AG (CCEAG) that provides extensive guarantees on job security. CCEAG, with 11,000 employees, is Germany's largest soft drink producer. The new agreement, valid through the end of 2012, was signed at the end of several months of collective bargaining and membership mobilization culminating in a marathon 4 days and nights of negotiations and threatened warning strikes. The agreement provides for a commitment to no future outsourcing of production, services or sales; no operational layoffs for NGG members during the agreement, with any production job transfers between production sites resulting from overcapacity limited to the same sales region; the distribution fleet to be kept within the parent company; all trainees to be retained for at least 12 months following the end of the training period. The existing framework agreement regulating working time (37.5 hour week), vacation and vacation allowances is preserved, while the company can, in response to market fluctuations, extend the workweek to 48 hours. Weekend work is to remain the exception. The agreement also gives a modest annual wage increase with compensation for inflation.
English: http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/344; http://www.iuf.org/drupal/?q=node/306
German: http://www.handelsblatt.com/archiv/coca-cola-tarifvertrag-gibt-garantie .
The government will offer the unions "clarifications" of aspects of the public service pay deal in the last week of April as part of an attempt to rescue the Croke Park agreement. The revelation came after Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Brian Cowen warned that if public sector workers did not sign up to the agreement, it could prompt strikes and industrial unrest which would lead to "lost productivity" and "further job losses." Fresh talks will be attended by the government, the public services committee of the Irish Trades Union Congress (ICTU) and the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) which brokered the deal. Balloting is getting under way among the unions involved but it will be May before the final outcome is known. A number of unions have said that even if there is an overall majority, they will not necessarily be bound by the vote. The latest to take this line is the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT), which is recommending a 'No' vote to its members. Earlier, the SIPTU general union called for some clarification of the agreement but argued for acceptance.
English: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/unions-offered-clarifications-in-new ... http://www.siptu.ie/PressRoom/NewsReleases/Headline/Name,11494,en.html
In 2009 women on average earned 13% less than men, according to a recent salary survey of the Workania jobsite. According to the survey the gender pay gap was 8% for starting employees, reaching 16 % for those employees with at least 6 years professional experience. With 27% the largest gap was found for top level managers. Workania stressed that among public servants the gap was relatively small, for example 9 % for policemen and 5 % for teachers. Interestingly, female doctors earned on average 3 % more than their male colleagues. In 2009, 82,000 employees took part in the survey.
English: M t Komiljovics, union correspondent