News

UNI Graphical Global Union today called on printing company Moore Response Marketing, owned by US-based printing multinational R.R. Donnelley, to respect all regulations related to workers’ rights as it shuts down operations in Belgium.



Management at Moore, based in Erembodegem, Belgium, last week told Belgian works council and unions CSC-BI, FGTB, LBC and ACLVB that it is facing financial difficulties due to the economic crisis and must close.



Workers at Moore are very angry. For four years the works council and unions questioned the company’s lack of active market strategies and its lack of transparency.



They now believe that the company has been planning the closure for a long time. Usually the social partners agree on a production target and gain sharing every year. Last year, however, that process was dropped. Workers also wonder if the plant manager was recently sent home on “non-active” status to prevent him from sharing news of the shut down with employees.



Last week, worker representatives challenged management with 95 questions about the company’s current situation and proposed restructuring alternatives to the closure. The management have answered barely half of the questions and have claimed that “it is to early to talk about” the social plan for the shutdown.



Does Donnelley care about the lives of the 95 workers and their families? The average age of the workers in Erembodegem is 43 years. They have the right to decent living and working conditions, they have the right to employment. Under Belgian law, management has to assist them in finding a new job or to get training to qualify for another profession.



They have the right to a decent social plan with a good compensation, UNI Graphical says.



UNI Graphical unions have formed the UNI-Donnelley Global Network to represent workers at all of the company’s facilities worldwide. This network has demanded a global agreement with the company and a commitment that the company will respect union and workers’ rights at every single worksite.



“We are concerned that management at Moore is ignoring its obligations to its employees and will try to use the financial crisis as an excuse to deny their workers’ severance rights,” said Adriana Rosenzvaig, head of UNI Graphical. “We will not let the company hang its workers out to dry.”



The UNI-Donnelley Global Network is calling on Moore to respect Belgian labour law and collective agreements and to enter into negotiations with the Belgian worker and union representatives.



UNI has also tried to start a dialogue with parent company R.R. Donnelley to discuss some of the management-employee conflicts in the company and to find a way to make the company stronger as it tries to navigate through the financial crisis.



So far, Donnelley has not responded to any requests to start discussions.



“We know that Donnelley and its subsidiaries around the world will see a real benefit if they embrace a pro-worker and pro-union attitude,” Rosenzvaig said. “Along with that, they will be helping to rebuild the economy by ensuring fair-paying, quality jobs to its thousands of employees worldwide.”