Vol. 71/No. 20 May 21, 2007
“The most important issue is the right for the union to negotiate,” said Fredrik Gehlin, a construction worker picketing outside his workplace in Hammarby in south Stockholm on April 20. “We also want a higher basic wage,” he said.
The workers receive a part of their wages based on their productivity. They don’t receive that pay until after three months. Under the new pact, the basic rate will be raised from 112 to 128 Swedish Kronor (1 SEK = U.S. 15 cents) during the three years of the contract. The new contract also preserves the right of union locals to negotiate rates on bigger construction projects of more than 1,200 hours.
—Catharina Tirsén
Workers at New Zealand plant
push back concession demands
AUCKLAND, New Zealand —Workers at Amcor, a packaging company here, claimed a victory and returned to work May 4 after a two-and-half day lockout.
The workers established a 24-hour picket on May 1. More than 60 members of the Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) were involved. Ten Amcor workers also joined some 200 unionists and young people marching in central Auckland to mark May Day.
Pickets told the Militant on May 2 that the lockout followed their refusal to accept the company’s demand for concessions in their site agreement.
A key issue was the drive by the bosses’ to cut manning levels on machines producing plastic bags, said shop steward Greg Watts. Currently each machine has three staff, he explained—one machine operator, one materials person, and a team leader. The reduced manning proposed by the company would put the safety of workers at risk, he said.
The workers voted unanimously to accept a deal which “consisted of appropriate staffing levels without redundancies, an extra week’s service and shift leave, an industry standard pay rise and a day’s pay to compensate for some of the lockout time” said an EPMU media release.
— Annalucia Vermunt
Related articles:
40,000 in Sydney protest antiunion laws
Front page (for this issue) |
Home |
Text-version home