On 9 April, workers in 12 countries went to more than 20 offices of Goldman Sachs to point out that Goldman has the opportunity to advance the cause of working women through its private equity ownership of the Danish multinational facilities management giant, ISS. ISS employs more than 300,000 women in over 50 countries- mostly in the part-time and low wage cleaning industry. Goldman recently ran ads profiling its new "10,000 women" program through which it provides for education and other advancement for women in developing countries. UNI's leaflet points out that a global agreement with UNI means progress for more than 300,000 women. ISS has a global agreement with UNI which expires in May, 2008. Discussions for a new agreement have been under way since last spring, but ISS has not yet made a concrete proposal. UNI Property Services unions around the globe aim to achieve an agreement with ISS in which both parties take responsibility for their common interest in raising standards across the markets in which ISS operates.
(English: http://www.union-network.org/UNIFlashes.nsf/By+Date/76E5AF870D6225EFC1257426002C9C3B?OpenDocument)
Search results
Find articles
After two months of industrial action, local government employers have made a `final offer' of a 2.45% pay increase with an extra UKP 100 (Euro 125) on lower pay rates. While this is an improvement on the previous offer of 2.2%, it falls well short of the trade unions' claim for 6% or 50p per hour. Unions will consult over the offer, with UNISON recommending rejection. The other unions involved, GMB and Unite, have also expressed their disappointment at the employers' offer. (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 1 No's 1 and 2).
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=256#a3737; http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=4163;
http://www.gmb.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=96860)
In answering press questions, the new Belgian prime minister Yves Leterme, visiting Luxembourg, and his Luxembourg colleague Jean-Claude Juncker stated to continue supporting the system of wage indexation prevailing in both countries. They did so despite recent criticism of the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Jean-Claude Trichet. Prime minister Juncker argued that "countries without an index do not show a better performance, neither in terms of inflation nor in terms of growth or job creation".
(Dutch: http://www.wvs-sws.be//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18809&Itemid=926; De Standaard, 8 April 2008)
Negotiations following 13 days of strike action by dockers in the Polish port of Gdynia over pay and other issues have led to an agreement between the management board of the Baltic Container Terminal in Gdynia and the strike committee. Five hundred dockers began an indefinite strike in the port on 20 March after they rejected a pay offerÿfrom management. Workers' demands also included an end to the violation of safety at work regulations; the restoration of double staffing on travelling cranes and in cool containers for safety reasons and allowing technical support employees to carry out overtime rather than outsource the work. Kazimierz Waldowski, Chairman of the ITF-affiliated dockers' union Solidarnosc, stated that the agreement was a success for all parties. He also thanked the ITF, the ETF and the Water Transport Unions' Federation of Latvia for their support during the strike.
(English:http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/1888;
http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/1871)
Finnish transport and dock workers ended their five-day strike for increased wages on 3 April, when the main union involved in the dispute signed an agreement with management that had been proposed by the national incomes conciliator Juhani Salonius. The agreement implies an extension of the new contract from just 10 months to three years. Under the new agreement, transport workers will receive a 3.5% pay rise in April 2008 and another 1.4% in October 2008, which is about . The total pay increase will be 12-14%, which is 0.7%pts higher than than the average pay rise for 2008 agreed thus far in Finland. The strike involved around 10,000 workers at 70 bus and road haulage companies and 12 freight terminals. Over 5,000 dockworkers and members of the seamen's union took strike action in support of the transport workers.
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 3/2008; http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/lab-a06.shtml)
Lithuanian teachers - members of the Lithuanian Education Employees Trade Union- launched a indefinite strike on 3 March, demanding that the government raise their wages immediately by 50%. Staff from nearly 200 out of 1400 schools were participating in the strike when it started, leaving thousands of pupils out of school. By late March, union leaders in Estonia and Latvia threw their support behind the striking teachers. Officials of the Estonian Teachers Union said they believed that conditions for Lithuanian teachers were appalling due to low pay, receiving 640 Euros a month, and a work load they described as excessive. The leader of the Lithuanian union, Aleksas Bruzas, stated that the union would not back down until the government took theirÿproblems seriously.
(English: http://www.sussexineurope.org/news_2.htm#Lithuania; http://www.teachersolidarity.com/blog/?p=61#more-61)
In mid-March, after tough negotiations and under the threat of a general strike, negotiations in Slovakia's engineering industry finally produced a deal implying a 6.5% wage rise for basic rates, to take effect from 1 April 2008. OZ KOVO, the metalworkers' union, originally demanded a 7% increase while the employer delegation of the Slovak Engineering Industry Association (ZSP) had responded with a 3% offer. The industry includes major car makers Volkswagen, PSA Peugeot-Citroen and Kia. It has to be added that in Slovak engineering basic tariff rates account for only 60% of total wages, which averages about SKK 21,000 (Euro 630) a month including bonuses and other incentive payments: the pay hike does not cover these. Yet, after the agreement AVC Cadca, an important supplier of car producers, left the employers' association, criticising the agreement for giving too many privileges to the trade unions.
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 3/2008;
http://www.spectator.sk/articles/viewcat/3/3; http://www.spectator.sk/articles/view/31254/3/avc_cadca_leaves_the_engineering_industry_association.html)
Negotiators have reached agreement for the 60,000 employees covered by the University Medical Centres collective agreement. These employees will see their pay increase in three stages between now and 2010: the 2008 increase of 2.1% will be followed by two increases of 1.95% in March 2009 and March 2010. There will also be increases in the end-of-year payments worth 1% in 2008, 1.5% in 2009 and 1.55% in 2010. The agreement runs from 1 January 2008 to 1 March 2011. The major ABVAKABO FNV union advises their membership to accept the agreement, but the independent NU '91 union regards the result as unacceptable considering the position of the nursing staff.
(English:http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=254#a3690;
Dutch: http://www.abvakabofnv.nl/cao/bericht/eindelijk_onderhandelaarsakkoord_cao_umc; http://www.nu91.nl)
After two months of strike action, trade unions in the Ministry of Justice have agreed a deal that provides for a Euro 190 pay increase for around 10,000 workers. The increase will be paid in two instalments: Euro 160 in 2008 and a further Euro 30 in 2009, together with a one-off payment of Euro 480. The dispute was over major discrepancies in pay between workers at the Ministry and those doing similar jobs but who had been transferred to the regions and were earning around Euro 200 a month more. (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 1 No. 2).
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=256#a3737;
Spanish: http://www.fspugt.es/index.php/mod.noticias/mem.detalle/idnoticia.3854/cat.1029;
http://www.fsap.ccoo.es/webfsap/menu.do?Actualidad:Sindical:Actualidad:20786)
After five months of intensive negotiations, a new agreement in the social work sector is being recommended by trade union negotiators to their members. The agreement runs from 1 November 2007 to 1 March 2010 and will include two main pay increases, 3% from 1 March 2008 and 2.5% from 1 March 2009. A change in the pay structure will also mean that many workers covered by the agreement will get a 0.5% increase from 1 January 2009. There will be a Euro 125 lump sum payment in February 2010. The agreement includes changes in working hours arrangements for older workers. Those aged 58 can reduce their hours by 10% with a 5% cut in pay, while those aged 59 can reduce their hours by 20% with a 7.5% reduction in salary. Those aged 61.5 can also reduce their hours by 20% but with no reduction in pay.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=254#a3690; Dutch: http://www.abvakabofnv.nl/cao/bericht/onderhandelaarsakkoord_voor_sociale_werkvoorziening)