Read this article in:
13 July, 2005ICEM News Release No. 29/1999
110,000 chemical workers in Germany's North Rhine area will receive a 3 per cent pay rise from today.
The wage hike was agreed in the early hours of this morning, after tough bargaining between the workers' union, IG BCE, and the chemical employers. Also included in the package is a one-off extra payment of 200 deutschmarks for May 1999. In all, this represents an average income rise of 3.1 per cent. Apprentices' pay is also to be increased.
The new agreement runs until 31 May 2000. Identical deals are now likely throughout the western German chemical industry - altogether, some 590,000 workers in 1,700 enterprises. The country's eastern states have separate bargaining arrangements.
The hard-won deal is "a viable compromise" and "respectable in the context of this year's bargaining climate," commented IG BCE's head of bargaining Werner Bischoff this morning. "Now, structural questions within the chemical industry must be tackled through collective bargaining," Bischoff insisted. "We'll be dealing with this in the course of the next few months."
At the global level, IG BCE is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
The wage hike was agreed in the early hours of this morning, after tough bargaining between the workers' union, IG BCE, and the chemical employers. Also included in the package is a one-off extra payment of 200 deutschmarks for May 1999. In all, this represents an average income rise of 3.1 per cent. Apprentices' pay is also to be increased.
The new agreement runs until 31 May 2000. Identical deals are now likely throughout the western German chemical industry - altogether, some 590,000 workers in 1,700 enterprises. The country's eastern states have separate bargaining arrangements.
The hard-won deal is "a viable compromise" and "respectable in the context of this year's bargaining climate," commented IG BCE's head of bargaining Werner Bischoff this morning. "Now, structural questions within the chemical industry must be tackled through collective bargaining," Bischoff insisted. "We'll be dealing with this in the course of the next few months."
At the global level, IG BCE is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).