Strike Threat Renewed in Slovenia as Employers Renege on Deal

As reported by the ICEM in its newsletter on 28 January 2008 (click here), private-sector strikes slated for 6 February across Slovenia were cancelled when agreement over wages was initialled between employers and the nation’s largest labour federation, Zveza Svobodnih Sindikatoc Slovenije (ZSSS), on 25 January.

The ICEM has been informed by its affiliate, KNG Chemical, Non-Metallic, Rubber Union, a ZSSS affiliate, that when it came time to sign the social agreement on 1 February, Slovenia’s Chamber of Commerce and industry associations backed away from the pact that called for across-the-board increases of 5.6%, nearly equalling the inflation rate of the Central European country.

In calling for European Union and global trade union support toward renewal of a general strike, ZSSS President Dušan Semolič stated: “Although the social dialogue has reached a dead end, the employers’ associations continue with manipulation in companies and are trying to enforce the agreements on pay adjustments in which a very low percentage of adjustment is offered to workers.” Employers are also implementing no-strike agreements within these individual companies.

The 6 February statement by ZSSS can be found here.

Since mid-2007, trade unions and employers’ groups have been working on an agreement to raise base wages in order to counter Slovenia’s spiralling inflation rate, as well as agreement on holiday bonuses and other remuneration issues. That agreement was nearly reached on 25 January, averting a mass strike that likely would have eclipsed the one on 17 November 2007, in which 70,000 workers marched through the streets of Ljubljana.

But that agreement was broken by employers in a serious social breach. The ICEM stands supportively behind Slovenia’s workers in all sectors at a time when their pay has not kept pace with rising prices brought on by the nation’s entry into the European Union.

Also in Slovenia, the ICEM, together with a dozen Central European affiliates, took action to support KNG-affiliated workers at glass plants, brave workers of the company Steklarna Hrastnik.