28 October, 2008European unions carry out protests against plans announced by the HP- EDS group to massively reduce its workforce.
EUROPE: On October 21 trade unions from Germany and Italy protested against recently made public restructuring plans of the group HP-EDS. According to the announced restructuring program the company is going to reduce 7.5 per cent of its workforce around the globe within the next three years, which means 24,600 employees of the newly formed company across the globe could lose their jobs.
Trade unions are concerned about the scale of the announced lay-offs, the highest in the history of the companies. In Europe the lay-offs are supposed to affect mainly EDS workers, where 8,400 could be dismissed.
In Germany the European Works Council (EWC), the trade union Ver.di and IMF affiliated IG Metall held a "joint lunch" in front of the EDS headquarters in Rüsselsheim, to protest the company plans.
Unions in Italy called for a tripartite meeting with the Italian Ministry of Economic Development aimed at discussing industrial strategies, production and the assets of Italian-based EDS and HP operations. Following EDS's refusal, with HP's silent support, to suspend cancelling previously achieved agreements the unions expressed serious concerns over the company's "failure to present at this stage even general lines of the industrial plan for Italy." In response, the unions held a national strike for all EDS and HP workers in Italy on October 21. All three IMF affialites FIM-CISL FIOM-CGIL UILM-UIL took participation in it.
The redundancies were announced as part of a global restructuring program following Hewlett Packard's acquisition of the business group EDS at the end of August 2008.