(3 March 2010) The trade unions in European gas (and electricity) have a great need to increase their collective bargaining coordination in light of the many challenges facing the sector. This was the main message of the first part of the European gas conference organized by EPSU affiliate Gas Romania trade union. EPSU’s Deputy General Secretary underlined the context of the European energy sector – the internal market directives for gas and energy; environmental regulations such as (...)

Press Communication, 1 March 2010
The Swedish state-owned company Vattenfall is asking its German workers to cut in wages and benefits, to open existing collective agreements and to agree to major outsourcing so these companies are no longer covered by the collective agreement. The workers in the company contributed to 1.8 billion Euros profits and are now asked to keep their demands low so profits and dividends can be kept high. The workers are saying NO. To underline this point EPSU (...)

(11 February 2010) Workers are facing a series of collective bargaining rounds in the German energy sector. The most important one concerns the negotiations for the collective agreement in the public sector which includes also the municipal energy companies (Stadtwerke). The employers side has argued for a ZERO wage round for 2 years. Workers do not agree and have organized “warning strikes”. Also the major energy companies are arguing that there is no money for pay increases despite the (...)

BERLIN, Jan 28, 2010 (IPS) - After the wave of de-privatisation of water services facilities that started across the world two years ago, municipalities in Europe are now buying back the electricity utilities they sold to private investors in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
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(27 January 2010) Trade unions organizing workers in EON met to consider the implications of EON’s Perform to Win and other plans to reorganize and restructure the company, January 26th. (read the full article].

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(15 December 2009) Representatives of a large number of European Works Councils in the energy sector discussed the role of the EWC in corporate policies, corporate social responsibility and transnational agreements. Steve Thomas (PSIRU) presented an overview of the challenges faced by the companies. These include:
Dealing with reducing carbon-emissions. Many companies chose to invest in nuclear power;
Reducing high levels (...read (...)

(20 November 2009)
GDF/SUEZ : LES SALARIES SLOVAQUES DE LA FILIALE SPP MANIFESTERONT A PARIS LE 17 NOVEMBRE A 13H AU SIEGE DE PHILIBERT DELORME
Le jeu de Monopoly dont est si friand GDF-SUEZ, privatisé en 2008, fait des victimes bien au-delà des frontières françaises ou belges. En effet, l’entreprise SPP, filiale Slovaque du Groupe GDF-SUEZ, fait l’objet d’un nouveau plan social visant plus de 220 licenciements.
Depuis 2004 et la privatisation de SPP avec le rachat d’une partie de son capital (...)

(3 November 2009) EPSU affiliated union POZ called for a strike on 2 November in Gas company SPP (partly owned by GdFSuez ..) to protest against the outsourcing of the cars and related maintenance and other services. 80 jobs will be destroyed. The Board of the company ignored the critical position of the union. The union argues that management has not proven that outsourcing will be more efficient and effective, cheaper and deliver a better quality service. It is a mere cost cutting (...)

(26 October 2009) Professor for Energy Policy Steve Thomas of the University of Greenwich and PSIRU explained the implications of competition in electricity. He introduced the European Union Directives on opening the electricity and gas markets that would be implemented also in Turkey when it becomes member of the Energy Community (see www.epsu.org/r/239) .
EPSU’s Deputy General Secretary underlined the consequences for workers and users, while Prof. Thomas highlighted that the internal (...)