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20 March, 2006
The German trio of unions attempting to come under a single collective agreement with Energy producer Vattenfall got a lift when Swedish ICEM trade union affiliate SEKO pressed that country’s Ministry of Economic Affairs for a fair and just resolution to the matter. Vattenfall AB is a Swedish state-run utility now in the process of buying out the minority stake of Vattenfall Europe AG.
The German-based utility, the country’s third largest, includes power utilities in Berlin and Hamburg, as well as power generation, distribution and lignite coal mines in eastern Germany. German unions IGBCE, Ver.di and IG Metall have been jointly negotiating with Vattenfall for a common accord in order to remove pay disparities and bring uniform working conditions to 20,000 German workers, but the company has refused.
Vattenfall has indicated it may sell parts of the German company to other enterprises, effectively removing 5,000 from company employment rolls. The German unions seek a guarantee that sale of any operation to another company will include the common collective agreement.
SEKO has begun a public campaign in Sweden on the company’s hard-line stand in Germany, and has promised reciprocal industrial actions if the German unions strike. “Vattenfall is an enterprise that must conduct its business activities outside Sweden the same as it does here,” said SEKO Chairman Janne Rudén. “We have a tradition in Sweden in which the rights of workers are respected. This tradition must also occur in the countries of Europe.” An ICEM News Release on the Vattenfall situation in Germany is at /?id=77&doc=1672.