RUSSIAN UNIONS FIGHT LOW PAY
The Miners and Metallurgical Workers Union of Russia (MMWU)
convention held in Moscow has attacked the "very difficult times for
working people with much poverty and low wages." MMWU president Michail
Tarassenko said the average salary in metalworking and the electrical industry
was the equivalent of "about $60 a month." The convention approved
the MMWU’s return to the Confederation of Russian Trade Unions, which it
left in 1992, and affiliation to the International Confederation of Free Trade
Unions.
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GUATEMALA UNIONS FIGHT GOODYEAR
The Guatemalan metalworkers’ federation FETRAMUGUA has
appealed for international solidarity for its affiliate, the GINSA Workers’
Union, whose members are suffering victimization from the Goodyear Tire
Company. GINSA, which produces Goodyear tires in Guatemala, is anti-union and
has fired illegally 50 union members including two leaders without
compensation. Management refuses negotiations.
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IRISH UNIONS: THREE-YEAR PAY DEAL
About 540,000 trade unionists in Ireland have accepted a new
national deal for a 16 percent pay hike over the next three years — twice
the level of the previous agreement. But unions have been divided over the
package, the latest in Ireland’s consensus-based politics which also
includes tax cuts and benefit increases.
The top-level agreement was reached in talks involving the
Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), employers and community and voluntary
groups. The deal provides for a minimum 25 percent increase in take-home pay
over 33 months. Most of the hike comes in guaranteed pay rises totaling 15.75
percent. Part will be funded by the administration through tax reductions. In
addition, Ireland’s first minimum wage, which began this April, will not be
in the tax net and other low paid workers will benefit from flat-rate
increases.
While the high school teachers’, store workers’ and
transport unions strongly opposed the agreement, SIPTU, the country’s
largest union, and IMPACT, the public services union, backed it. The ICTU made
no recommendation to its members whether or not to support the document.
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ITALY SET
TO PASS STRIKE CURB LAW
The Italian administration has adopted legislation to curtail
strikes in important public services. The statement followed widespread
strikes at airports and on the railroads. The new law states that there must
be 10 days warning of strike action. A conciliation procedure takes place
during this "cooling-down" period. If strike action finally ensues,
a minimum one-third of employees must be compelled to work to ensure 50
percent of normal services. Unions not observing the new system can be fined
up to $25,000 per day.
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BRITISH GOVERNMENT
LETS DOWN PART-TIMERS, SAYS TUC
TUC, Britain’s union federation, has criticized the Labor
administration over the introduction of European legislation on part-time
workers. The TUC says the way the law on part-time workers has been introduced
"lets down" this category of workers and means "only 45,000 out
of Britain’s 6.8 million part-time workers — one in every 150 — might
benefit."
The TUC said the main problem is that employees with a
contract of employment are covered rather than all workers. Other provisions
such as protection against dismissal have "simply been left out of the
legislation."
General Secretary John Monks said the "draft regulations
are perhaps the weakest and most disappointing produced by this
administration. Clearly the order has gone out to make them as weak as
possible. In practice they make no difference to the vast majority of part
timers."
He added: "It clearly shows the administration is not on
the side of the low-paid women workers who stand to gain from an effective
implementation of the directive."
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UE News - 04/00
