13 July, 2009
A unified strike by members of three unions at Saint-Gobain glass plants in Belgium ended Friday, 10 July. But not before Auvelais workers at the French multinational made a defining stand in this industrial action: no company will be allowed to use the financial crisis as a pretext to implement common restructuring!
Workers returned to their jobs 11 July, after voting 58 to 48% to end the nine-day strike, a strike that saw two plants totally blockaded for most of that time. A mediated agreement was put forward on 8 July. The dispute started in February 2009, when Saint-Gobain proposed 241 job cuts. Over the ensuing months, Saint-Gobain resisted all practical alternatives put forward by social partners.
Some 880 are employed at the twin plants of Saint-Gobain Sekurit and Saint-Gobain Knell near Charleroi, in southern Belgium.
When the strike started – 2 July, after months of fruitless bargaining – the company still wanted 215 job cuts. The unions, including ICEM affiliates Centrale Générale-FGTB/ABVV and the CSC/ACV, proposed constructive options to the job cuts. But these proposals were ignored. Saint-Gobain as well sought cuts to worker entitlements, such as pre-pension benefits, transfer compensation, and severance on voluntary departures.
“The absence of meaningful dialogue is an insult to what is now demanded,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. “We know that Saint-Gobain is guilty of social dumping and we also know that this conduct is not related to the financial crisis.”
Trade union strikers blocked access to all company assets at Saint-Gobain Knell throughout the strike, and at Sekurit, a blockade was lifted partially in the sixth day of the strike. Other restructurings have occurred in these Wallonian plants. In May 2008, 100 jobs were cut. The Sekurit plant makes flat glass, while the Knell operation makes glass in building and construction products.
The ICEM extended support to the strikers during the labour action. “The ICEM questions Saint-Gobain and its motives in using the world’s economic crisis to gain financial strength in the restructuring of the Belgian factories,” the Global Union Federation wrote Belgian union members. “The ICEM and its family of trade unions worldwide stand with you in Auvelais as you take justified industrial actions.”
Saint-Gobain has faced fierce resistance to job cuts in other parts of Europe, as well. Strikes in Italy and France occurred in April and May, and European trade union federations manifested at Saint-Gobain offices in Paris on 20 May.
Currently, CGT in France has called for urgent talks with the company at Mers-les-Bains over 100 proposed job cuts, and social partners at Saint-Gobain Desjonquères in Real Sitio, Spain, began deep discussions over a proposed six-week shutdown in August and September, affecting 180 workers.
In Germany, IGBCE, EWC, and Saint-Gobain completed social talks related to transfer and re-skilling at Saint-Gobain Vetrotex operations.