Collective Bargaining

After ten hours of negotiations, the management of the General Motors (GM) Opel plant in Figueruelas, near Zaragoza, and the workers' monitoring commission of the plant reached a preliminary agreement to be ratified by employees. As reported by the UGT Secretary General in the plant, Peter Bona, the agreement implies lay-offs for 900 of 7,000 Opel Zaragoza workers. For the remaining workforce, a collective agreement will be in force including a 1% pay increase in 2010 and 2% increase each in 2011 and 2012.
English: http://www.barcelonareporter.com/index.php?/news/comments/
via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Spain

The transport unions called off the strike planned for Thursday 4 March, giving parliament time to decide on their demand to cut taxes on non-wage benefits that are already part of work contracts. They did so after the caretaker cabinet and the lower house of parliament gave in to their demand to repeal a tax hike on benefits such as cheap transport fares, pointing at "the positive legislative progress so far" (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 February 2010).
English: http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/Czech-unions-call-off-transportZ
via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Czech+Republic

The Trade Union of Press Workers and Axel Springer Hungary Ltd. have concluded a collective agreement, which is valid from 1 February 2010 and lasts for an undefined period, thus regulating employment relations which were already in existence since 1996. The agreement includes the rights and obligations of parties, and regulates working time, resting time, holiday, wages and other benefits. The parties have agreed to review the agreement every year and amend if necessary.
English: M t‚ Komiljovics, union correspondent

Under pressure of the FNV Bondgenoten union, Dutch Railways (NS) has abstained from the use of scabs (strike-breakers) in order to clean stations and trains, becoming filthy after three days of strike of cleaners for a new collective agreement. At a demonstration of cleaning workers, Bondgenoten sector responsible Mari Martens said NS was "the most miserly of principals." In their campaign "Clean Enough", the cleaners demand a 3% pay increase, more training and higher travelling allowances. On a parliamentary hearing earlier in February, cleaners gave striking examples of work pressure linked with low pay. The cleaning employers' association argues not to be able to pay wage increases because of tariff pressure of the large principals. FNV Bondgenoten already aimed cleaners' actions at principals like NS, large banks, hospitals, and universities. On 27 February cleaners at Reed Elsevier offices went on strike too (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 2 March 2009).
English: http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/dutch-train-cleaners-strike-over-pay
Dutch: http://www.fnvbondgenoten.nl/nieuws/actueel/verstandig_ns_26-02-2010/;
NRC Handelsblad, 27 February 2010; De Volkskrant, 24 February 2010

Members of the Unite union working for IT services company Fujitsu have voted to accept proposals tabled by government conciliation service Acas aimed at resolving the dispute between Unite and the company over jobs, pay and pensions. The vote by a four to one majority in a 72% turnout means that the four month dispute, which involved 10 days of strike action, will end. In the course of the dispute the number of possible compulsory redundancies has been reduced from the initial 1,200 to less than 30 with an extension of employment until at least 26 March. In addition to an extension of the pension consultation period from October until at least 5 March 2010, a 5% increase in pay has been offered as compensation for the change to a defined contribution scheme (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 January 2010).
English: http://www.unitetheunion.com/news__events/latest_news/unite_members_vote ...
via http://www.labourstart.org.uk/

On 27 February, a clear majority of the collective bargaining committee of the ver.di services union has voted in favour of recommending the result reached after arbitration in federal and local government to the 120,000 union members involved. Union president Frank Bsirske said not to be shouting for joy with the result, but pointed out that the real income of the civil servants was safeguarded. A total pay raise of 3.5% is envisaged, with 1.2% increase backdated as of 1 January 2010, 0.6% as of 1 January 2011, also as of that date a lump sum payment of Euro 240, and a 0.5% increase as of 1 January 2011. The union emphasizes that these increases imply an impulse for purchasing power (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 2 December 2009).
German: http://presse.verdi.de/pressemitteilungen/showNews?id=42f0ac82-23f8-11df ...

Public service union CISL FP is targeting the final bargaining round for the four separate agreements concerning the public service managers. The first agreement to come fully into force -and whose provisions usually serve as a model for the other three- is that concerning ministry officers. The final agreement covering 2007-2010 was signed mid-February and has been approved by the authority controlling state budget, which allows it to become effective for 3,700 ministry officers. Pay increases are 4.85% for 2006-2007 and 3.2% for 2008-2009. On 22 February, the agreement for 2006-2007 for regional and local administrations has finally been signed. It will be effective for more than 10,000 chief officers and managers for whom the average pay increase will be Euro 281,20 per month. CISL FP is now pushing to speed up negotiations for 2008-2009.
English and Italian: report CISL FP International Office (Mirko Checcacci)

For Saturday 27 February, the SETCA/BBTK, LBC-NVK, and CNE unions announced a general 24-hours' strike at Carrefour Belgium. They argued that with the selling or closure of 21 stores of the supermarket/hypermarket chain the sustainability of the entire Belgian part is at stake. They said that already for a decade they have been asking for a commercially ambitious plan, not once a cost-cutting plan at the expenses of the workers. Also, the unions demand the upcoming discussion on the collective agreement to take place in the framework of collective bargaining for the retail sector at large.
English: http://www.uniglobalunion.org/Apps/iportal.nsf/pages/homeEn?Open ...
Dutch: http://www.standaard.be/artikel/detail.aspx?artikelid=VE2MPHFS;
French: http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/1536/Economie/article/detail/1072528/2010 ...

On 25 February PCS, the civil services union, announced that up to 270,000 civil and public servants from across the country are set to launch a month of industrial action, with a 48 hour strike on 8 and 9 March in a dispute over unilateral changes to redundancy terms. This decision was made following strong support in a ballot which saw 63.4% of those voting backing strike action and 81.4% supporting an overtime ban. The strikes, which will involve Jobcentre staff, tax workers, coastguards, border agency officials, courts staff and driving test examiners, are a result of the government and Cabinet Office making unilateral changes to the civil service compensation scheme.
English: http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/id ...

On 18 February, a pilot collective agreement has been agreed between the IG Metall union and the Gesamtmetall employers' association, covering 700,000 metal and electronics workers in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). According to IG Metall, the agreement will be an excellent instrument to bridge both the decrease in production and to avoid redundancies until mid-2012. It can be adopted by a voluntarily company agreement in companies which have been in the official short-time arrangement ("Kurzarbeit") for at least 12 months. When a company is in statutory short-time, redundancies are not allowed. From 1 May 2010 till 31 March 2011 the pay scales of the former agreement will be extended, and a lump sum of Euro 320 (Euro 120 for apprentices) has to be paid in two steps, on 1 May 2010 and on 1 December 2010. On 1 April 2011 wages will be increased by 2.7 %. The agreement on wages ends after 23 months, on 31 March 2012. Afterwards, it has been agreed that the NRW agreement will also be implemented in three other states, Niedersachsen, Baden-Wrttemberg and Bavaria.
English: message of EUCOBAN network of EMF / EFFAT / ETUF-TCL / EMCEFÿ;
http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3636-German-Metalworkers-Employers .
German: http://www.igmetall.de/cps/rde/xchg/internet/style.xsl/view_3615.htm