Cuts without alternatives, the future of bus lines at risk On February 1, 2023, a delegation from the OGBL, made up of representatives of industry and transport syndicates, met for the second time with the Minister of Mobility, François Bausch, in connection with the elimination of routes serving industrial sites at shift changeover times. At the first meeting at the Ministry in December 2022, it was agreed that the reorganization of the routes should improve the quality of public transport by better adapting it to the needs of users, in particular shift workers. The Ministry undertook to find solutions and not to discontinue lines serving industrial sites until an alternative means of transport is available, for example through the implementation of a mobility plan at company level. Finally, further studies were to be carried out at the Ministry level before a final decision was taken. At the follow-up meeting on February 1, the Minister presented the status of the reorganization of the lines and the decisions taken so far. While the OGBL welcomes the decision to maintain some heavily used bus routes, it objects to the Minister’s decision to eliminate 6 bus routes serving industrial sites without offering alternative transportation to employees. The companies concerned have already been informed of this decision. According to the Ministry, these routes can no longer be justified. The routes in question are 16U Rodershausen – Colmar/Usines; 17U Clervaux – Hosingen – Stolzembourg/SEO; 21U Echternach – Colmar/Usines; 92U Bigonville – Colmar/Usines; 93U Martelange – Colmar/Usines; 94U Boulaide – Colmar/Usines. Has every effort been made to find alternatives for the employees? NO! More innovative mobility concepts (shuttles, minibuses, “on demand” mobility) must be studied by the Ministry to compensate for the disappearance of the lines. The OGBL, together with its staff delegations, calls on the companies concerned to assume their responsibilities and contact the Ministry of Mobility to set up mobility plans for their employees. The laxity of employers in organizing the transportation of their employees must stop! The OGBL will ensure that an evaluation of the efforts made by employers and the Ministry is presented at the next meeting. We need mobility solutions for everyone! The future of the lines is still uncertain! Even if the other lines continue to serve industrial sites for the time being, their fate remains uncertain! Whether or not they will be maintained will depend on studies currently being conducted by the Ministry, as well as possible alternatives. The studies will not be completed until May. The lines will remain in operation until May 2023. What happens next? The OGBL has requested a meeting as soon as the results of the studies are known. The OGBL will continue to monitor every detail of the proposed reform. For the OGBL, the reform of the network must guarantee a quality public transport that meets the needs of all users, including shift workers! In this context, the OGBL demands clear commitments from the Ministry and the companies! Press release of the Chemistry Syndicate, the Metal Processing Syndicate and the Road Transport & Navigation/ACAL Syndicate of the OGBL, February 1, 2023
Everyone is talking about the index, we’re defending it. Thanks to the commitment of the OGBL, an index bracket was triggered on February 1, 2023. This means that all salaries and pensions will increase by 2.5% due to the increase in the cost of living. This tranche almost didn’t fall. This time last year, the employers launched an all-out attack on the automatic indexation system. Together with the government and two other syndicates, they decided to suspend the normal operation of the index. Only the OGBL objected, refusing to sign a tripartite agreement that put the index system in serious jeopardy. Attacked from all sides, the OGBL maintained its red line: touching the index is out of the question! Thousands of OGBL delegates and militants mobilized and took to the streets. The entire OGBL structure fought relentlessly to defend this pillar of the Luxembourg social model. With success: a few months later, it was decided, this time with the OGBL, to restore the normal operation of the index. As a result, you are now enjoying a 2.5% salary increase. Only the OGBL defended the index. And it will continue to do so as often as necessary. Everyone is talking about the index. We defend it. Publication updated February 3, 2023
OGBL Syndicate Commerce grows stronger The OGBL Commerce family is expanding into the pharmaceutical distribution sector. Hanff – Global Health Solutions now has its first OGBL staff delegation. The 100-year-old company, which specializes in the distribution of drugs, pharmaceuticals and veterinary products, is located in Ellange. The wholesaler, which provides service and logistics to pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers, employs around 100 people. The OGBL holds all the effective mandates, i.e. five, as well as one deputy mandate. This expansion in the sector demonstrates once again the confidence of the employees in the OGBL Syndicate Commerce. The new delegates can count on the support, assistance and expertise of the OGBL, in order to defend the interests of the employees in their company in the best possible way. Press release by the OGBL Syndicate Commerce January 24, 2023
The European Commission wants to liberalize the rules for occasional bus services! The European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF), to which the OGBL and its syndicate Transport sur Route & Navigation/ACAL belong, recently drew attention to a reform initiated by the European Commission concerning occasional bus services. In fact, the European Commission wants to further liberalize the sector, to the detriment of drivers, passengers and other road users! In particular, they want to introduce the following reforms Less restrictions on the 12-day derogation: removing the obligation to take two weekly breaks after each 12-day period; extending the derogation to occasional domestic services; removing the single service condition. Splitting of daily breaks: introducing the possibility of splitting the mandatory 45-minute break into three 15-minute parts. Introduction of the possibility of postponing the daily break by up to 2 hours. If implemented, this reform will lead to a massive deterioration in the working conditions of casual workers. The ETF will therefore continue to fight these proposals at European level. As a first step, the ETF has launched a survey addressed to the drivers concerned, in which you can take part by clicking on this link until 27 January: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfSHbsH8jvW2XkwqVl2LU2U0j2xRMaiPSCNioTvmbRYR4jNyA/viewform Next, the ETF and its member syndicates – including the OGBL – will start putting pressure on European and national institutions to prevent the implementation of such a reform to the detriment of drivers! Press release of the OGBL Road transport & Navigation/ACAL Syndicate, January 20, 2023
Tripartite steel industry agreement LUX2025 – Second meeting of the Monitoring Committee On 17 January 2023, the Minister of the Economy, Franz Fayot, and the Minister of Labour, Georges Engel, had invited the trade unions and the management of ArcelorMittal Luxembourg to take part in the traditional meeting of the Follow-up Committee of the tripartite steel industry agreement LUX2025 (Comité de suivi de l’accord tripartite sidérurgie LUX2025). This annual meeting allows the different actors to take stock of the past year. For the OGBL, it is above all an opportunity to check whether the agreement is being applied properly and to verify whether ArcelorMittal is keeping its commitments. Jobs saved ArcelorMittal currently employs around 3,200 people in Luxembourg. The restructuring initially envisaged by ArcelorMittal foresees that by the end of 2025, its workforce will only amount to around 3,000 employees out of the 3,500 employees that the company still had at the beginning of 2020. The OGBL will of course never be satisfied with job cuts, but nevertheless points out that the use of various instruments, including early retirement, outplacement and internal reorganization, has made it possible to avoid a social plan. The year 2022 was not the year of job cuts within the company. The OGBL has nevertheless noted in some cases a worrying deterioration in working conditions. Reorganizations, departures that are difficult to replace, and the prevailing lack of manpower are having a negative impact on employees’ quality of life. This situation is further reflected in the number of departures. The number of employees who have left the company is around 450 in less than 3 years. The OGBL is paying particular attention to this on a daily basis and is not forgetting the ongoing discussions for the renewal of the collective bargaining agreement, which must also be able to provide concrete solutions for the staff. It should also be noted that not all the planned reorganizations have yet taken place. In this context, the OGBL will continue to closely accompany the transformations, paying particular attention to the respect of employees’ interests. Realized and forthcoming investments In 2022, ArcelorMittal has exceeded the level of its commitments in terms of investments to be made. As a reminder, the company had committed to invest between 165 and 205 million euros. Today, ArcelorMittal has already made 2/3 of the minimum investments required and has therefore exceeded the level expected at this stage. The OGBL thus notes that the company is respecting its commitments towards the employees and the Luxembourg government. Additional investment projects, other than those planned, were also discussed at the Monitoring Committee meeting (comité de suivi). These are part of the additional 130 million euros investment package announced in September 2022, aimed at financing decarbonization technologies for the Belval and Bissen sites. The future of ArcelorMittal in Luxembourg As regards the construction of the building in Kirchberg that is to house the company’s new headquarters, work has begun and is expected to be completed in 2026. The OGBL also remains attentive to the future of the Dommeldange site, in order to ensure that it will continue to exist, while at the same time ensuring that the guarantees given by the group regarding the maintenance of activities during the period of validity of the agreement and beyond are respected. As for Bissen, despite announcements of investments aimed at decarbonizing the site, the OGBL remains relatively worried. The site is currently going through an unprecedented crisis, the reasons for which, for the OGBL, are to be found in the strategic choices made by the “WireSolutions” division, which are currently weighing on the results. The ship is staying on course and maintaining its cruising speed! Despite a very unstable geopolitical and health context, volatile energy prices, and restructuring carried out and to come, ArcelorMittal continues to post positive figures. The employees and the Luxembourg sites contribute largely to this result. It is therefore clear to the OGBL that ArcelorMittal must invest more in Luxembourg. This applies both to its own activities and to the staff who accompany all developments. Despite some reservations, the outcome of the follow-up meeting was generally positive. The OGBL would also like to thank the public authorities and the competent ministries for their commitment. Press release by the Steel and Mining Syndicate of the OGBL, January 17, 2022
The OGBL demands a strengthening of the public status of POST Luxembourg Article 24 of the framework law of POST Luxembourg establishes the staff regime of Post Luxembourg. It perpetuates the application of the current and future provisions of the general statute, of the salary, allowance and pension schemes, of the legislation relating to civil servants and public employees and the application of the collective agreement for public workers to the governed by public law staff of POST Luxembourg. At the same time, this article 24 introduced the possibility for POST Luxembourg to hire staff under private law. The current Minister in charge of POST Luxembourg, the Minister of Economy, quoted in the order of the administrative court of 24 October 2022, states that article 24 also aims at inserting the private regime in the POST law in order to put the public and private law regimes on an equal footing, without the coexistence of these two different statuses being intended to define quotas, or even to oblige POST Luxembourg to recruit 50% of its staff under public law and 50% under private law. The Minister underlined that the will of the legislator was clearly: to anchor the private law status in the POST law as an alternative to the public status and to put an end to any kind of possible discrimination between employees with different statuses. The OGBL notes that the private status has indeed been anchored within POST and that it was accompanied by the introduction of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in 2009. However, despite the efforts of the OGBL to achieve equal treatment between the two statuses, it must be noted that the said CBA has only increased the injustices between the statuses instead of putting an end to any kind of discrimination, as desired by the legislator (point 2). The OGBL also notes that during the pandemic, the government and the management of POST Luxembourg have not ceased to claim that the company is essential for the survival of the country. For OGBL, this fact demonstrates once again the public utility mission of POST Luxembourg. The OGBL demands a reinforcement of the public status of POST Luxembourg: by a policy of recruitment of public employees (civil servants, public employees or public workers); by the negotiation of provisions aiming at the transition to the public status of the current “private” staff; by real negotiations on the statuses within POST, including management, government and ALL the unions represented within POST Luxembourg. The OGBL will not stop defending the public character of POST Luxembourg. Press release by the Public Service Syndicate OGBL/Landesverband 9 January 2023