An industrial dispute that seems to become a never ending story has turned into an effective strike of thousands of workers. Workers at the state-owned VMZ Sopot (see also the Newsletter July-August 2012) have been staging strikes since mid-December. They are outraged by the constant delays of their salaries and are rallying with demands for securing orders and better working conditions in the winter. Meanwhile, the only bidder that came forward to take over the plant has made known that it considers the current collective agreement a hurdle and only wishes to buy the plant on the condition that 2,000 of its 3,200 workers be laid off. The strike was called off by the trade unions after prime minister Borisov declared the workers will receive the entire amount of their overdue pay. He also told the workers that in case of needed layoffs, they will be redirected to other jobs and pledged a recovery of the plant.
English: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=146897
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=147314
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.