Read this article in:
19 October, 2009
Trade unions of the pulp and paper sector affiliated to the ICEM acted in concert with Dutch unions last week in their protest against inferior contract terms put forward by Sappi. On 15 October, 50 protesters from ICEM Netherlands affiliates FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Bedrijenbond, along with two other Dutch unions, made their way to Sappi’s European headquarters in Brussels to present a petition signed by the 800 workers of the two paper mills stating they are dissatisfied with contract terms presented.
The 50 shop-floor leaders from Sappi’s mills in Nijmegen and Maastricht were joined by scores of protest letters by ICEM affiliates of the sectors.
In mid-September, Dutch workers of all four unions rejected a 21-month pay deal with a 95% vote that would have provided only a miniscule pay rise. Sappi proposed a 0.4% increase effective on 1 July 2009, with a 0.9% increase proposed for 1 April 2010.
What’s perhaps worse, the South African-based company proposed elimination of “seniorendagen” for workers 55 years or older. This is the Dutch system of granting days off annually to workers when they reach ages 45, 50, 55 years or older. The days-off do not amount to many per year, but are seen as a just reward to senior workers who have given valuable years of service to the company.
Sappi told union negotiators that its pay proposal as presented was low because Nijmegen and Maastricht workers refuse to give up the senior days. In the ICEM’s letter to Sappi European CEO Berry Wiersum on 15 October, General Secretary Manfred Warda said, “The ICEM, and its family of 470 unions in 143 countries, finds this type of dialogue repulsive, and implore you to intervene on behalf of a socially responsible company to change this type of attitude.”
The ICEM and affiliated unions in the pulp and paper sector will be monitoring Sappi’s collective bargaining dispute at its Dutch mills, as well as a developing contract dispute at a Sappi mill in North America and upcoming redundancy talks at three Sappi mills in South Africa, where the company is attempting to pare 500 jobs from ICEM affiliate Chemical, Energy, Pulp, Paper, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union (CEPPWAWU).