On 12 September (the first day of the autumn session of Parliament), four trade union confederations started a “live chain” demonstration around the Parliament building in Budapest in protest against government measures already affecting employees as well as against the planned new Labour Code. The unions, demanding “fair social dialogue”, argued the planned code would increase the vulnerability of employees. The presidents of the confederations, the Alliance of Autonomous Trade Unions (ASZSZ), the Trade Union Federation of Professionals (ESZT), the Federation of Hungarian Trade Unions (MSZOSZ) and the Cooperation Forum of Trade Unions (SZEF), told a press agency that employees representing all of their 130 unions had joined the rally. A new, multi-day protest meeting “in defense of democracy” started with a sit-in on Clark Ádám Square in Buda, organized by various trade unions, on Thursday 29 September, planned to last till Sunday 2 October. On 2 September, ETUC general secretary Bernadette Ségol and the presidents of all six Hungarian union confederations met with EU Employment Commissioner László Andor to express their serious concerns about the proposals to change the Labour Code. The ETUC pointed out that such changes clearly conflict with EU standards for social dialogue and the provisions of the fundamental charter of social rights (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 April, May and July-August 2011).
English: Máté Komiljovics, union correspondent; http://www.etuc.org/a/8995
http://www.politics.hu/20110930/unions-begin-multi-day-protest-defense-of-democracy ...
This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.