Collective Bargaining

As of 31 March and with four months' notice, the Board of Directors of Mal‚v Hungarian Airlines has terminated the currently valid collective contract, at the same time authorizing management to initiate negotiating a new agreement. Mal‚v (re-nationalised in February 2010) has put in place a restructuring programme, including raising revenues, further rationalization of costs and flexibiisation of employment more flexible. Mal‚v pilots, affiliated with the Hungarian Airlines Pilots' Association (HUNALPA), have threatened to conduct industrial action following disagreement over labour contract negotiations. No date has yet been specified for the strike.
English: M t‚ Komiljovics, union correspondent

As part of the widespread protest in the country's public service against planned job cuts felt to be dictates from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), unionists in education organised a one-day general strike on 22 April. The education unions demand the integration of the amendments proposed by the union federations into the education law, the removal of plans to dismiss 15,000 employees, the amendment of the law on unified salaries by including the teaching staff in the upper part of the salary grid, the granting of two 10% hikes for hard working conditions, and the enforcement of the court rulings through which employees won their rights. Union leaders emphasized that the one-day strike was just a warning. "If our demands will not be met, we will hold a national strike for an unlimited period starting the first half of June," Marius Nistor of the Spiru Haret union told a press agency.
English: http://www.financiarul.ro/2010/04/23/hundreds-of-teachers-are-on-general ... http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/22/world/international-uk-romania-strike.html via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Romania

Border guards have cancelled an announced two-day strike after reaching a compromise deal with the employer. The new contract covers 2.5 years. Salary levels for the second year will be negotiated in January 2011. Markku Pietik„inen, the chief shop steward of the Border Guard Union, says workers found the new terms tolerable.
English: http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/04/border_guards_cancel_threatened_strike_1628149.html via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Finland

The Secretary General of CCOO, one of the two major union confederations, has told a press agency that his confederation will likely sign an accord with employers about labour reforms in the first half of May. Ignacio Fern ndez Toxo said that the agreement will focus on a reduction in working hours, an overhaul of hiring incentives as well as measures to incorporate youth workers and the long-term unemployed into the workforce, adding "We have more than four million unemployed in Spain and at least some of them could have been spared if some measures such as a reduction of the working day had been introduced earlier." An initial agreement between unions and employers is seen as a first step for the introduction of labour reforms by the government.
English: http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/Spains-largest-union-expects-labour-accords .

The FNV Bondgenoten union and European Container Terminals (ECT), subsidiary of Hongkong-based Hutchison Whampoa with its main container-handling facilities in the Rotterdam port, have reached a basic accord for a collective agreement. The agreement covers 2,400 employees and 3.5 years, from 1 April 2009 to 1 October 2012. It includes a wage increase of 1.42% backdated 1 April 2009, increases for 2010 and 2011 of 1% each, and an increase of the basic monthly wage of Euro 20 by 1 May 2012. Pension rights will be lifted considerably, the employer will fully take over sickness insurance fees, and improvements in shop-floor safety have been agreed. Further, a joint study will be undertaken on the impact of the Second Maas Plain, the major Rotterdam port expansion under way, on incomes and job security of port workers, as many in the ECT workforce are concerned about the over-capacity effects of this expansion. Niek Stam, FNV Bondgenoten officer, comments: "It took nine negotiation rounds and a number of short strikes, but in the end the result is satisfying." ECT kept out of a sectoral agreement, which was an earlier union demand. The deadline for the membership ballot is the end of May.
Dutch: De Volkskrant, 22 April 2010; http://www.fnvbondgenoten.nl/branches_bedrijven/branches/vervoer/havens/eindelijk_ .

The FNV Bondgenoten union and the Corus steelworks, subsidiary of the Tata Steel Group and employing 9,500 workers, have reached a basic collective agreement prolonging job security and excluding forced dismissals till 1 October 2012. According to Aad in `t Veld, FNV Bondgenoten officer, "This accord is of crucial importance in view of the major reorganisation Corus is actually planning." He emphasized that the union prioritised job security over wage hikes. The agreement includes a wage increase for 2010 of 0.75%, as of 1 July 2010, and a lump sum payment of Euro 200. Pay and conditions for 2011 will be negotiated later (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 March 2010).
Dutch: http://www.fnvbondgenoten.nl/branches_bedrijven/branches/metaal/fnv_metaal/corus ...

On 21 April, European transport workers expressed their anger over the liberalisation of the railways and its impact on public services and jobs at a rally in Luxembourg. Some 375 unionists representing transport unions in Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg joined forces under the banner of the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF). The rally, part of the ETF's European railway workers' action day, was calling for an end to liberalisation. This, the unionists stated, was responsible for deteriorating public services and a lack of job security. Luxembourg union leaders also met with the minister of development and infrastructure, Claude Wiseler, to send home the anti-liberalisation message.
English: http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/4393

The ballot concerning the main private sector collective agreements, covering about 240,000 employees in manufacturing, transport, construction and other sectors, has ended up in a clear `Yes', with overall 64% of unionists in favour. This implies that the agreements will enter into force retroactively from 1 March 2010, lasting until 1 March 2012. The agreements will provide minimum pay increases of 1.2% in 2010 and 1.8% in 2011, though the actual wage formation on top of these amounts will be realised in decentralized local negotiations, normally once a year, depending on initiatives of the local shop stewards (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 February 2010).
English: message of EUCOBAN network of EMF / EFFAT / ETUF-TCL / EMCEF;
Danish: http://www.foa.dk/Forbund/Presse.aspx?newsid={EFF117AC-8F42-4802-A238 ...

The IF Metall union has concluded new collective agreements in manufacturing (engineering, steel, and chemicals) and mining. These agreements cover 22 months, from 1 April 2010 to 31 January 2012. Pay increases will be 0.9% by 1 June 2010 and 2.3% by 1 June 2011, implying 1.7% increase on an annual basis. In those sectors where companies still have problems due to the crisis, temporary agreements as of March 2009 are prolonged until 31 October 2010. This means that local parties can negotiate a temporary reduction of working hours with 20% and reduced wages, in order to avoid losing skilled workers. In order to be prepared for a new recession, parties agreed to create a training system within the agreement period. Concerning gender issues, it was agreed to take further steps to diminish the gender pay gap, through common information, training, common recommendations for wage analysis, and finding common measurement instruments. Parties also agreed to expand the extra benefit of 10% for one more month for workers on parental leave, thus up to six instead of five months.
English: message of EUCOBAN network of EMF / EFFAT / ETUF-TCL / EMCEF

The waste sector of the ver.di services union has agreed a set of collective bargaining guidelines to provide a framework for its negotiations in the industry. The union argues that in the past it has had to react to continuing pressure from the employers to cut jobs and keep wages low. Instead of reacting to events, the union wants to develop a more strategic approach to its collective bargaining work in a sector characterised by intense wage competition a trend for employers to pull out of the private sector industry agreement. The 11 guidelines include maintaining the industry agreement, securing collective agreements with employers who are not covered by that agreement, ensuring that recruitment of members is a key element of any disputes with employers, and getting increases to the new sectoral minimum wage.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/363;
German: https://ver-und-entsorgung.verdi.de/abfallwirtschaft/tarifarbeit_tarifpolitik/tarif .