The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) launched a campaign for higher wages on Feb. 20, arguing that corporate fat cats were ill-placed to call for moderation. The initiative will culminate on April 5, with 30,000 to 40,000 people from across Europe expected to march to Ljubijana, the capital of Slovenia, during a meeting of EU finance ministers.

“We want a pay rise, we want it soon, we want it quickly and we want more equality in pay,” said John Monks, general secretary of the ETUC, an umbrella group for European trade unions. Monks emphasized that wide-reaching pay rises were due because the share of wages in the gross domestic project had been declining in recent years while the share of profits had been growing.

The ETUC wage campaign risks putting unions on a collision course with the European Central Bank, which has said it will not tolerate inflationary pressures fueled by a rapid rise in wages. But Monks said that the call for pay moderation needed to “be directed to the boardroom, the people at the top, who are getting the huge salaries and bonuses.”

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42,000 Puerto Rican Teachers Strike after Contract Talks Fail

Puerto Rico’s teachers union declared a strike on Feb. 20, threatening to shut down schools across the island after a breakdown in long-stalled contract talks. The 42,000 public school teachers are seeking higher pay, smaller classrooms, school repairs and more autonomy in designing curriculum, according to union chief Rafael Feliciano.

The starting yearly bases salary for a teacher in Puerto Rico is $19,200 — lower than in any U.S. state and about one-third less than the average wage on the mainland. The government has urged teachers to keep working, reminding them that strike participants could be fired under a Puerto Rican law that forbids the disruption of the public education system.

The government reaction to the strike is to focus on keeping the island’s 1,523 public schools open and operating, said Education Secretary Rafael Aragunde. The union remains open to negotiations despite the strike, Feliciano said in the hope that it can lead to an early agreement.

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German Steel Firms Agree to 5.2% Pay Boost, Biggest in 15 Years

IG Metall, Germany’s largest union, has obtained a 5.2 percent pay increase for 85,000 workers in an agreement with the country’s major steel companies‹the biggest wage boost in 15 years. In addition, the workers will receive a $300 bonus. The contract will run from March 1 to March 31 2009.

Labour Minister Olaf Scholz, in a radio address, said: “After moderate salary increases" these past years, following two years of strong growth, it is necessary now to see more substantial salary increases.” Employers said they had sought to avoid damaging strikes and that the “accord reflects the exceptional situation in a steel sector that is currently booming,” according to a statement that quoted Dieter Hundt, head of the German employers federation, BDA.

Lower unemployment rates have emboldened unions to press for higher wages, with chemical workers seeking a seven percent wage increase and service sector workers looking for eight percent for about 1.3 million civil servants,

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Cleaners in Netherlands Win $14.8 an Hour in Negotiated Contract

After more than a year of organizing and using pressure tactics against key Dutch multinational cleaning companies and public ministers, the members of FNV Bondegenoten won a contract that gives some 135,000 workers a $14.8 an hour wage and a series of benefits that include an extra paid holiday, a raise in travel expenses, Dutch language courses and vocational training on company time.

A statement from the union said: “Now we have a lot of work ahead of us. We will be meeting locally and nationally to ratify the contract, evaluate the campaign and celebrate our victory. Then our plan is to train all activists on contract enforcement and issue fighting continue developing their organizing capacity and sustainability. We will also spend the next two months visiting all work sites to explain the contract, push for membership and identify worksite issues to campaign around.”

The workers for these cleaning companies and their contractors include migrants from Morocco, Turkey, Ghana, Suriname, Cape Verde and Latin America. The national contract, which covers between 130,000 and150, 000 cleaners, will cost employers and clients about 135 million euros ($200 million.).

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Milan Airports Are Hit by Strike; 146 Flights Are Cancelled

A four-hour work stoppage by ground crews at Milan’s airport on Feb. 19 caused the cancellation of 146 flights. The workers were protesting against Alitalia’s plans to scale back its presence in northern Italy.

Money-losing Alitalia, which is in negotiations to be purchased by Air France-KLM, plans to cut its daily flights from Malpensa from 360 to 105 a day, beginning April 1, downgrading the airport’s hub status in favor of Rome.

Italy is selling its 49.9 stake in Alitalia, but last month’s collapse of Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s center-left government has raised questions over whether an agreement can be sealed.

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Australia Welcomes Fatter Postal Workers

Australia’s postal service isn’t changing the scales on its counters. But it has loosened its weight limits for motorcycle staff as it fears a shortage of slender recruits in an increasingly heavy population. Australia Post lifted the maximum weight for letter carriers who ride its 110 cc motorbikes from the previous 198 pounds to 231 pounds.

Postal service spokesman Scott McIntyre said Feb.19 that the change was made solely because the motorbikes’ manufacturer, Honda, advised they could handle the extra weight “without any significant effects on the stability, handling or safety.” McIntyre said the maximum amount of mail carried on the motorbikes would remain unchanged at 55 pounds.

A postal union representative, Michael Etue, said Australia Post had struggled to find recruits who weighed less than 198 pounds. We¹re getting a lot of women riding and Asian people. But Australia Post cannot meet the demand, said Etue, branch organizer of the Communications Electrical Plumbing Union.

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