Belgium
The three union federations in local government in the Wallonia region organised a demonstration on 19 November in protest at the regional government’s failure to implement the 2005-2006 collective agreement. The unions are calling for the government to honour its promises on protecting workers’ purchasing power, recruitment and pensions and they are ready for a long campaign of protest if the government doesn’t respond.
Read more at > CSC (FR)
EPSU vice-president and JHL general secretary Tuire Santamäki-Vuori joined demonstrators outside parliament on 8 October in protest at the threat of 110 redundancies at the THL health institute. THL employees staged a walkout to join the demonstration which was also supported by the JUKO and Pardia trade unions. Read more at > YLE news website (EN)
(July 2017) Following an action at the beginning of June in Madrid, the public service federations FSC-CCOO and FeSP-UGT, mobilised their members in Valladolid on 23rd June. This is the latest stage in a series of protests planned by the unions that will continue until negotiations are underway in public administration and the unions can set out their key demands on pay, hours, jobs and the other rights that public service workers have lost as a result of austerity measures.
While public sector workers in general have seen a pay freeze lasting five years, culture workers have been hit even harder with no increase since 2002 and a third of jobs in the sector cut since 2008. The KKDSZ culture workers' union organised demonstrations across the country on 20 January supported by many other trade union organisations. The EPSU collective bargaining conference expressed its solidarity with the KKDSZ representative who presented the union's case to participants. Read more at > EPSU (EN) And at > KKDSZ (HU)
