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20 April, 2009
Over the past decade, multinational tyre companies considered Central Europe as an investment utopia, shifting production and expanding factories at a rapid rate. Recently, US-based Goodyear invested US$100 million in its existing plant in Debica, Poland, while Bridgestone of Japan moved to construct a second plant in Poland.
In Hungary, Hankook of South Korea, established a production unit, and Bridgestone`s new plant is close to start-up. Apollo Tyre of India is also a plant in Hungary. Similarly, in Romania, Pirelli just started an operation in Slatina, where the Italian company has teamed Continental AG in steel-cord production.
This Central European growth, however, brings with it some consequences concerning job conditions and trade-union representation. Wages, working conditions, health and safety regulations also fall short of the level common in West European countries. In some of the new plants, trade union rights are denied or companies prefer plant-level and company-based unions.
This has led the ICEM to boost national trade unions to challenge these circumstances by creating a regional network of rubber unions. Trade union leaders from Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, and Slovenia came together to discusses these challenges, as well as the effects of the economic crisis at a meeting in Budapest on 8-9 April.
Hosted by ICEM Hungarian affiliate VDSz, the meeting was sponsored by the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation (FES) of Germany, and was also attended by French and Spanish trade union representatives and ICEM’s sister organisation, EMCEF.
VDSz President György Paszternak
Following presentation by the ICEM on the global picture of the industry, the participants gave reports about individual situations in their countries. Hungary has always been the centre of the rubber industry in the region, but the union organising ratio has fallen since the level is what at before 1990, a VDSz representative reported. Unions are blocked from being freely established in some companies, like Hankook and Bridgestone.
The ICEM was asked to continue to support the struggle at both companies to achieve union recognition. In Slovakia, the financial crisis has substantially decreased production, with work hours reduced and workers’ typically paid 60% of their normal salaries. Slovenia has just adopted a law for a shorter work-week, which was supported by the trade unions.
The crisis has dramatically impacted the auto and auto-supply industries in Slovenia. Initially, wages were not cut but workers were forced to use their holidays. As the crisis dug deeper, wages and working hours were reduced. Likewise in Romania, the auto industry is in a significant crisis, seriously affecting the tyre industry. One positive note is that the union organising 1,500 workers at the new Pirelli factory in Slatina won 10% wage gains. The meeting also heard EMCEF’s presentation on the crisis as well as its activities regarding social dialogue, collective bargaining, and the European Works Councils.
“We must not let the crisis destroy our earlier achievements,” said VDSz President György Paszternak. “We must be vigilant in not allowing employers to misuse the current conditions. Our entire social future depends on trade union recognition, representation, and increased pay and working standards.”