Breakdown in negotiations for iron and steel agreement in Basque region

As had occurred in the 2004 and 2005 bargaining rounds, negotiations between the employers and trade unions regarding the regional agreement of the iron and steel sector in the Biscay province of the Basque region broke down, almost from the outset of the talks. Both sides in the negotiations accused the other of blocking the bargaining process.

Negotiations aimed at reaching the regional agreement of the iron and steel sector in the Biscay province in the northwestern part of the Basque region have broken down. The stalemate involved, on one side, the Biscay Business Confederation (Confederación Empresarial de Bizkaia – Bizkaiko Enpresarien Konfederazioa, CEBEK) and the Biscay Federation of Iron and Steel Companies (Federación Vizcaína de Empresas del Metal, FVEM) and, on the other side, the Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions (Confederación Sindical de Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO), the General Workers’ Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT), Langile Abertzaleen Batzordeak (LAB) and Euskal Sindikatua (ELA).

According to the employers, the confrontational attitude of the trade unions caused FVEM to refuse to negotiate the backdated application of the new agreement to cover years in which no agreement had been reached. This seems to have triggered the breakdown of the dialogue. At the only meeting held at the headquarters of the Industrial Relations Council (Consejo de Relaciones Laborales), the parties failed to reach agreement on the period to be covered by the bargaining. The employers proposed a three-year pact (2006–2008), whereas the trade unions wanted to include 2004 and 2005, for which years no agreement had been reached. Over 50,000 workers would be covered by the agreement.

Different perspectives

The disagreement also reflected two different perceptions of the aims of bargaining. All of the trade unions agreed that the employers discussed only pay improvements and showed no interest in dealing with issues such as working conditions, recruitment, occupational classification, regulation of hand-over contracts and subcontracting. Furthermore, both sides disagreed on annual working time, which the employers insist on maintaining at 1,688 hours for workers on a single shift and 1,708 for workers on a split shift.

At a general meeting, the Biscay iron and steel employers called for reduced taxation, labour flexibility and increased working time, to combat the falling competitiveness that they claim is affecting the sector. FVEM has recommended that the companies apply a non-binding pay increase of 3.2% compared with last year, thus concluding the bargaining process, in their view. The workers in the sector have taken action to defend collective bargaining on several occasions, with varying degrees of participation.

Points of conflict

The breakdown in bargaining has intensified the disagreement between the trade unions about the best strategy to adopt. One of the main differences is that the majority trade union, ELA, has adopted a strategy of bargaining at company level rather than undertaking a regional sectoral agreement. ELA has tried to mobilise the workers of companies that do not have their own agreement or that have not concluded the bargaining of their agreement, and has thus been strongly criticised by the rest of the trade unions. The other trade unions have tried to mobilise all of the sector’s workers in companies of all sizes, with or without their own agreement.

Other points of conflict relate to the fact that LAB has sometimes criticised CC.OO and UGT for not attempting to mobilise workers of large companies. Moreover, in last year’s bargaining round in the Álava region in the southern part of the Basque region, UGT and LAB supported a basic agreement to save the bargaining process, which was rejected by the other trade unions. The situation in Álava and the region of Guipúzcoa (where bargaining has yet to start) adds to the difficulty of collective bargaining in the Basque iron and steel sector.

In Álava, where the provincial agreement would cover approximately 20,000 workers, bargaining was suspended in early July 2006 by the Álava Employers’ Association (Empresarios Alaveses, SEA) and the current situation is similar to that in the Biscay province. The trade unions refuse to accept an increase in working time or an agreement that does not reduce working time. In a favourable economic climate, they seemed prepared to mobilise workers and to make tough demands after the August holiday period.

Mari Luz Castellanos, CIREM Foundation