Austrian labor unions gear up to fight the [highly profitable] companies

[Tender Branson]

Austria’s 170,000 metal workers are ready to down tools and take to the streets.



Labour union official said they would hold summits at the beginning of next week and may organise demonstrations. They made clear that strikes were another possible measure. The announcements come after staff’s chief negotiator Rainer Wimmer upset employers’ representative Christoph Hinteregger by publicly calling for a 5.5 per cent salary increase for all workers employed in the sector.

Hinteregger announced yesterday (Weds) he was "affected and surprised" by the announcement and criticised Wimmer’s decision to initiate a press conference to make his points of view public. Hinteregger explained he would have preferred a continuation of discussions behind closed doors and said an increase of such scale was impossible. The industry official argued none of the sector’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) could cope with such a rise. Hinteregger claimed many firms only recently recovered from the effects of the economic crisis which broke out in autumn 2008.

Wimmer hit back by making clear that he was "sick of hearing the same points of view over and over again." The PRO-GE Union boss explained in a TV interview yesterday evening: "The industry keeps telling us ahead of possible crises that the economic outlook would not allow higher salaries. It says that no increases are possible during economic downturns and claims higher wages are out of reach after a crisis as the sector must recover."

Wimmer and his team of negotiators dismissed companies’ suggestions to increase employees’ earnings by 3.1 per cent. The metal industry also offered one-off payments of 200 Euros to every employee. The unionist said such measures meant no real salary increase considering Austria’s high inflation. The alpine country’s inflation was 3.7 per cent in August, significantly more than the European Union (EU) average (2.9 per cent).

Hinteregger made aware of economists’ predictions of a slump in growth. The Institute for Economic Research (WIFO) said last week Austria’s gross domestic product GDP would increase by 1.3 per cent from this year to 2012. Only in July, the institute predicted an improvement of 1.8 per cent. WIFO experts explained that export and people’s purchasing power – which proved to be solid in recent months – would not be able to carry the growth in the coming months.

Wimmer said: "We found out that metal industry firms paid 90 per cent of their profits of the past three years to shareholders and owners while staff were asked for modesty because of the volatile outlook. They were told that the strength of Austria as a business location would be at risk if wages were upped significantly."

The PRO-GE Union chief added: "It seems employees are not being taken seriously. The economy keeps growing strongly, companies have lots of assignments and some of them make sensational profits. We will not be satisfied with anything but the compensation of the inflation and an extra one-time payment."

Unionists and metal industry representatives will continue their wage negotiations next Wednesday (12 October). The outcome of the talks is of great importance as the discussions traditionally preceded talks between staff and firms of the retail trade and other branches of the domestic economy.

Meanwhile, the number of employed people in Austria keeps growing. Federal statistics agency Statistik Austria said last month 4.14 million residents of the country were in work between April and June, around 60,200 more than in the second quarter of 2010. Both the number for people in full-time and part-time occupations rose, according to analysts. Labour market experts have pointed out the high poverty risk of people in part-time contracts. They also emphasised the increasing joblessness among foreigners and significant improvements considering elderly people’s labour statistics.

Labour Market Service (AMS) chief Johannes Kopf told the Kurier newspaper earlier this week his organisation expected 9,000 more people with no job next year. Kopf warned that the forecast was made given that the current Eurozone crisis will not affect the labour market much more in the coming month than expected. "We don’t think (Austrian) companies will reduce their workforce figures as strongly as in 2009," the AMS head said. Kopf explained a "slight unemployment increase" was likely as firms’ demand for staff would shrink.

WIFO also said that the domestic unemployment rate would increase as more and more people were looking for jobs after finishing school and traineeships. Some experts expect that the Austrian jobless rate may also be affected by the recent opening of the domestic labour market to residents of all of the EU’s Eastern European (EE) countries but Bulgaria and Romania.

Eurostat, the European Commission’s (EC) research and statistics organisation, said Austria had the lowest unemployment rate among the EU’s 27 members at four per cent ahead of the Netherlands (4.1 per cent) and Luxembourg at 4.5 per cent. Statistik Austria research disclosed that 175,000 people were out of work between April and June 2011 in Austria – a decline of 12,000 compared to the same time span in 2010.

http://austrianindependent.com/news/Business/2011-10-06/9190/Metal_industry_braced_for_strike

[Tender Branson]

It's not the moment for asking for a salary increase.

Well, we are not Greece.

Austria's economy is growing by 4% this year, so are the profits of the companies. The inflation is also at about 3.5%.

Therefore it is only normal that the steel workers (and others) get at least a 4.5% pay rise.

The employers representatives demand that wages should only rise by 3% this year is ridiculous because it would mean a net wage loss because of the inflation.

It's good that the unions are turning up the heat on the capitalists. It's good for the middle-class.

[Tender Branson]

It's even more ridiculous in the light that the manager profits of the steel companies rose by between 5-10% annually over the last years. The salaries of the CEO's of the best companies even rose by 20% over the last years.

http://www.arbeiterkammer.at/online/managergehaelter-115-millionen-euro-55682.html

[Tender Branson]

Looks like the small strike today was worth it. The employers’ representative is now offering a pay-rise of 3.65% on monthly wages plus a one-time 200€ payment. Considering that the average wage of a steelworker here is 2200€ per month according to the Presse, the one time payment would be 17€ per month and an additional 0.75%, for a total of 4.4%

I guess the Unions will push on and the whole 170.000 metal workers will go on to strike in the next week, because now the time is really good to go for the 5.5% rise. Eventually I think the rise will be negotiated somewhere in between the 4.5-5% range.

The last strike in Austria was more than 50 years ago and it was successful then.

http://diepresse.com/home/wirtschaft/economist/700583/Alles-unter-45-Prozent-nicht-akzeptabel

[Tender Branson]

Here is the development of pay rises and inflation over the last years:




In the last years, the pay rise was mostly below the inflation rate and even during good economic years, it was just slightly above the inflation rate. So, now is the time to make up for the last years.

[Tender Branson]

While strikes are very rare in Austria and they have never lasted more than a few days, Austrians side with the striking workers, according to the new Gallup poll.

51% say the strike is justified
41% say it's not

Support is highest among SPÖ voters (78%) and FPÖ-voters (73%).

66% of Austrians think the wage increase should be higher than 4%, 28% say it should be higher than 5%. The inflation rate was 3.7% in September.

http://money.oe24.at/OeSTERREICH-Umfrage-51-Prozent-unterstuetzen-Metaller-Streik/43365112

[Tender Branson]

Support is highest among SPÖ voters (78%) and FPÖ-voters (73%).

Well, duh.

Yeah, the FPÖ is increasingly the party of the workers.

The numbers are almost not adding up:

This poll also says that SPÖ has 29% support, FPÖ 27%, ÖVP 23%, Greens 13% BZÖ 5%.

If 78% of SPÖ voters back it and 73% of FPÖ voters, this would already be 42% support out of 51%. If we add about 60% of Green voters, then there would already be 50% support.

That means almost no ÖVP or BZÖ voter is supporting the strike.

[Tender Branson]

The strikes have now been called off (after 1 day), because the Union boss and the Minister for Economy pressured the worker/employers representatives to take up the talks again.

It will be interesting what the new talks today will bring. Probably an increase of about 4% with a 1-time payment of 200€, which means a total pay rise of about 4.7%

[Tender Branson]

The talks have ended with a result:

Wage groups A & B will get a pay rise of 5.3% (low income, minimum-wage metal workers)

Wage groups C & D will get a pay rise of 4.3%

Wage groups E & F will get a pay rise of 4.2%

Wage group G will get a pay rise of 4.0%

Wage groups H, I, J, K will get a pay rise of 3.8% (high-income metal workers)

The minimum wage for metal workers will rise from 1515€ (2120$) to 1583€ (2220$) a month.

The Unions also bargained a better imputation of maternal leave times, so that women who have kids will now get faster into higher wage brackets like before. For each kid, the maternal leave imputation has been raised from 10 months to 16 months.

...

Therefore the Unions have done a good job at negotiating a good pay rise. The average inflation rate was 2.8% in the past 12 months, while the current inflation is about 3.7% - The unions bargained payrises well above the inflation rates and especially for low income workers. The metal industry costs for the pay rise will amount to about 300 Mio. €

http://derstandard.at/1318726088561/Einigung-nach-Verhandlungsmarathon-Metaller-Loehne-legen-kraeftig-zu-Im-Schnitt-42-Prozent-Plus

[Tender Branson]

More good news from the union sector:

Retail Trade: Salary Increase of 3.6%

After 14 hours of negotiations, representatives of the employer and employee side came to a new collective agreement for the trade sector. Salaries of the 520,000 employees will increase by 3.6% on average on 1 January 2012. Apprenticeship remuneration will go up by 3.9%.

Employees who earn a gross salary of not more than € 1,500 will receive a fix amount of € 50, which corresponds to an increase of up to 3.8%. For higher salaries the increase is 3.5%.

The union was able to push through one of its central demands. Parental leave times will be taken into account in the classification of employees and in the calculation of anniversary bonuses.

While the new agreement is “just about acceptable” for the employers, it is seen as a success by the union of private sector employees (GPA-djp). “We achieved an increase significantly above the inflation rate. We are very close to 4%”, stated Manfred Wolf, representative of the employee side. The union’s initial demand was a salary increase of 4.2% for all employees.

For the Austrian companies in the trade sector, the agreement will result in additional total cost of approximately € 650m, according to Peter Buchmüller, negotiator for the employer side.

http://www.friedlnews.com/article/retail-trade-salary-increase-of-3-6