25 February, 2008
Four French unions are awaiting a meeting by the country’s Work Minister to unravel bad-faith bargaining practices by the Plastics Federation, an employers’ grouping. In joint social talks on 1 February, which were inconclusive, the association indicated it wanted to break from a 2004 protocol over wages.
Unions CGT-FO, CFDT, CFTC, and CFE-CGC filed a stern protest with French Work Minister Xavier Bertrand, and the unions are expecting a meeting. They also have alerted workers in the plastics industry of the dispute, and the unions said they would look “very seriously” at all forms of action to resist the employers’ stated aim.
The Plastics Federation wants to re-calculate the formula for which wages are based on, as arranged in the social agreement that came in 2004. The unions charge the federation with deliberately using this issue to place a major impediment in current labour-management talks. They say employers’ are discarding several years of constructive bargaining by seeking a wage formula recalculation.
“The Fedechimie CGT-FO denounces and condemns this grave lack of respect for signed agreements, a fact that will lead to reduced purchasing power for workers,” said the union in a statement. The four unions are adamant for the Work Ministry to find a solution to the “irresponsible attitude” brought on by the Plastics Federation. The talks affect 155,000 French workers in various plastics industries.
Similarly, in the French glass sector, social talks have also been hindered by unreasonable employer demands. Negotiations broke down in December 2007, and five French labour unions brought the impasse to ministerial level for government intervention on 18 February. The unions at the table in the French glass sector negotiations are FCE-CFDT, CGT-Verre et Céramique, FO-Chimie, CFE-CGC-Chimie, and CFTC.