News

UNI Europa Graphical & Packaging’s annual Collective Bargaining Conference was held last week in Slovenia. Over 50 union representatives from 20 affiliates met for 2 days and discussed the ongoing co-ordination of collective bargaining throughout Europe.



The Conference also co-incided with the International Day for Decent Work and in a declaration on decent work the Conference rejected the idea that workers must pay for a crisis that they did not cause.



The Conference also rejected the neo-liberal solutions currently proposed by most European Governments and European Institutions and called for the creation of decent work and decently paid jobs as a way of finding a path out of the crisis and toward stability, democracy, peace and prosperity



It demanded that all Governments ratify and implement all international treaties, charters and conventions designed to achieve these goals which must be accompanied by effective mechanisms of control to ensure compliance.



The opening session of the seminar was addressed by Dusan Rebolj, the President of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Slovenia (PERGAM) as well as representatives from the Employers Association and the Government.



An analysis of the economic and political context of the 2010 bargaining round was provided which arose from the annual Collective Bargaining Survey undertaken by UNI Europa Graphical.



The conference also broke into workgroups and discussed the ongoing importance of establishing a social dialogue in the graphical industry. Affiliates provided in depth information on their own experiences of consultation within their respective countries and the processes that are followed during the many closures in the graphical industry throughout the European region.



The conference heard of the very difficult situation in the European graphical sector, but also heard repeated interventions that stressed the determination of Europe's graphical workers to fight and defend their hard won wages and working conditions.



In addition to the CBA conference the UNI Europa Graphical Steering Committee also met and discussed the current project being undertaken on social responsible restructuring. This is a joint project between UNI EG and Integraf and is funded through the European Union.



The findings from the project will be presented to a seminar on the 22^nd and 23^rd November in Brussels.



Further detail contact nicola.konstantinou@uniglobalunion.org