The Swiss trade union federation USS laid out its wage demands for 2025–2026, calling for general salary increases of 2% to 2.5% across sectors to counter inflation and catch up with lagging wages. USS argues that wage increases must include automatic cost‐of‐living adjustments in collective agreements. The demand has already sparked tense reactions from employer associations, especially from the Employers’ Federation FER, which cautions that sweeping wage rises could stress smaller firms in a fragile macro environment. Meanwhile, unions like Unia are gearing up for tough negotiations, especially in industrial and export‐oriented sectors, where pressures from exchange rates and global competition are strong.
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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.