10 March, 2008
A broken social accord by employers’ groupings in Slovenia has caused the nation’s largest trade union federation, Zveza Svobodnih Sindikatoc Slovenije (ZSSS), to call a mass strike for this Wednesday, 12 March. The strike, which could bring up to 200,000 workers and their families to the streets and eclipse Slovenia’s largest mass strike ever, on 17 November 2007, will be joined by union members from other Slovenian national trade union centres.
After negotiating for six months on pay, holiday bonuses, and other work-related expenses, social partners came to a deal on 25 January, thus halting plans for a mass strike scheduled for 6 February. But when it came time to sign the agreement in early February, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Employers’ Association (ZDS), backed away from the deal that would have given gains equal to Slovenia’s spiralling inflation rate.
In a letter issued on 6 February, ZSSS President Dušan Semolič said the various employers’ associations were now “manipulating” inside individual companies, by forcing contracts with low percentage pay adjustments to workers. The union federation then called the 12 March strike on 18 February.
In December 2007, the country’s gross average monthly earnings, based on inflation-adjusted terms, had risen by less than 1%, compared to the same period in 2006. The country’s inflation rate in December 2007 had grown to 6.4%. A short 11 months earlier, when Slovenia adopted the euro as currency, its inflation rate had been 2.8%.
The ZSSS-led strike has broad support among both European trade unions and global unions. Meanwhile, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has called for a demonstration on 5 April 2008 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, over the European Central Bank’s (ECB) loud public cry for wage moderation. The protest will occur at the same time that the ECB Governing Council meets with EU Finance Ministers on economic and monetary policies in Ljubljana.