GERMAN
MEGA-MERGER
FALLS ON LAST HURDLE
Five German unions suspended their merger plan to form Verdi,
the world’s biggest individual union, when the public services and transport
union OTV failed to approve the new organization. Two-thirds of the members
voted in favor but the constitution of the 1.53 million-member OTV requires 80
percent approval.
Four other unions back the merger: the postal workers, the
bank and insurance union, the media and printers and the office workers union.
If Verdi goes ahead after another vote in April 2001, it will have three
million members in 13 separate industrial sectors with 120 regional offices
serviced by 5,000 full time officials. The merger move follows a membership
crisis in which one-third of Germany’s union membership has been lost since
1991.
Meanwhile, Britain’s engineering and electrical union, AEEU,
is seeking to seal a merger with IG Metall, Germany’s biggest union, to
create a cross-border organization representing more than three million
members. Although there are many U.S./Canada and Great Britain/Ireland
cross-border unions, this would be the first significant cross-border tie-up
in Europe.
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RIFT IN CANADIAN
UNION MOVEMENT
Two of Canada’s biggest union organizations are engaged in a
fight over the right of Canadian workers in U.S.-based unions to join a
Canadian union. Relations between the Canadian Auto Workers’ Union and its
federation, the Canadian Labour Congress have become so bitter that the
220,000-member CAW, Canada’s largest private sector union, for the first
time refused to join the CLC’s Labor Day parade in September.
The CLC, which represents 2.4 million workers, or two-thirds
of all unionized workers in Canada blames the CAW for grabbing members and
power. The CAW, which seceded from the U.S. United Auto Workers union in 1985,
says it is fighting for democratic rights, including breaking away from
foreign-controlled unions.
At the center of the conflict is an attempt by up to 30,000
Canadian members of America’s Service Employees International Union —
about one-third of its Canadian membership — to leave and join the CAW. The
SEIU, also affiliated to the CLC for its Canadian members, claims the
autoworkers raided its locals. The CLC imposed sanctions against the CAW,
which says there was no raiding or initiation of recruitment and that
dissident SEIU members had approached it for affiliation. (CAW Pres. Buzz
Hargrove posed the issue as one of basic union democracy when he
addressed the UE Convention in August.)
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ILO SLAMS
VENEZUELAN INTERFERENCE IN UNION
The International Labor Organization has slammed the
Venezuelan administration’s interference in the country’s labor movement.
The complaint followed President Chavez’s organization of a referendum to
suspend from duty and then remove within six months leaders of the one
million-member Venezuelan Workers’ Confederation (CTV), the country’s
largest labor organization. The CTV, along with the Catholic Church, is one of
the few remaining pockets of opposition to Chavez. Although two-thirds of
those voting agreed to the President’s measure, only one in five workers
went to vote. The union leaders say the referendum is a sham and have pledged
not to leave their posts.
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ROLLS ROYCE TO
AXE 5,000 JOBS
British technicians and blue-collar workers are to pay the
price for "unsatisfactory" results at Rolls Royce which have pushed
down its share price. In a bid to return to double-digit revenue and dividends
growth, the aerospace and marine engines group has established a three-year
restructuring program during which an estimated 5,000 jobs will be axed. The
announcement of the job cuts — from its world-wide labor force of 40,000 —
comes in spite of the company’s record order book.
Most Rolls Royce income derives from after-sales maintenance
work which will be affected by the early retirement of most of the remaining
Tristar and Boeing 747 aircraft. The Group has been shedding about 2,000 jobs
a year with its British workforce down to about 30,000. Recently it has won
dozens of new orders, including to supply Singapore Airlines with 100 of its
Trent-900 series engines to power a fleet of A3XXs, the European Airbus’s
latest giant jumbo jet. Rolls Royce says that the new orders will not have an
impact on its economic performance for six or seven years.
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EUROPEAN UNION
WARNS
OF NEED TO RAISE RETIREMENT AGE
The European Union (EU) has warned that retirement ages in
Europe may have to rise if public finances are to cope with pensions provision
and that tougher budget policies may be needed. The EU is an organization of
15 European countries with some similarities to NAFTA. It warns that pensions
expenditure for rapidly aging populations could lead to an increase in
pensions expenditure of 3-5% of gross domestic product (GDP) in most member
countries. It also says countries could also see an average 3 percent increase
in health care expenditure to cater for the aging population. It indicates
that spending hikes could be contained by raising the pension age which is 60
in most EU countries.
Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands are expected to face the
biggest increase in pension outlay but the UK will have the easiest ride. It
is only in the UK, where pension provisions are among the lowest in Europe,
that the share of GDP spent on public pensions is expected to fall. Spain’s
public pensions expenditure is expected to almost double to 17.7 percent in 50
years.
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UE News - 12/00
