Difficult bargaining in textiles sector

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In late March 2003, the social partners in the Belgian textiles sector signed a preliminary two-year collective agreement, implementing the national intersectoral agreement for 2003-4. The deal followed a breakdown in negotiations and several days of strike action over differences relating to wage increases, the time-credit scheme and sick pay for blue-collar workers. Compromises were reached on these various issues, but the employers still regard the outcome as too costly for an industry facing financial difficulties.

Belgium's national [intersectoral agreement for 2003-4](http://www.cnt-nar.be/DOC-DIVERS/IPA-AIP/IPA 2003-2004-FR.pdf), signed in January 2003, sets the overall framework for collective bargaining in the whole of the private sector over the coming two years (BE0302302F). Bargaining has since been taking place in individual sectors to implement the intersectoral accord, and agreements have been reached in many branches. However, negotiations were particularly difficult in the joint committee (No. 120) for the textiles and hosiery industry, covering 40,000 workers, where there were several days of sector-wide strike action.

Trade union demands

The three trade union organisations representing blue-collar workers in the textiles industry are: the textiles, clothing and diamonds federation (Centrale du Textile, Vêtement, Diamant/ABVV Textiel, Kleding en Diamant) affiliated to the Belgian Federation of Labour (Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique/Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, FGTB/ABVV); Textura, affiliated to the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV); and the Federation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium (Centrale Générale des Syndicaux Libéraux de Belgique/Algemene Centrale der Liberale Vakbonden van Belgie, CGSLB/ACLVB). Their joint demands for a new sectoral agreement included the following four main priorities:

• an appreciable increase in employees' purchasing power through a 5.4% pay rise (equivalent to the pay norm set out in the intersectoral agreement) and alternative methods;

• the maintenance and improvement of the existing early retirement scheme;

• the abolition of the waiting day (jour de carence), whereby blue-collar workers are not paid for the first day of sickness absence. The elimination of such practices which discriminate between blue- and white-collar workers is a priority for Belgian trade union movement (see BE0003307F) and was one of their main demands in the talks over the 2002-3 intersectoral agreement, though no new harmonisation measures were agreed; and

• improvements to the sector's 'time-credit' working time reduction scheme (BE0108360F). According to the unions: 'There has been a great increase in stress and in pressure at work. This trend must be halted. More solutions aimed at improving the work/life balance must be sought. The time-credit scheme should become an actual right without any restrictions.' The unions called for the time-credit scheme, which applies to only 5% of employees in the textiles industry, to be extended and negotiated at company level.

The list of demands also dealt with issues such as job security, training, the maintenance and extension of various benefits, and employee/trade union representation in small companies (with upwards of 30 employees) (BE0304301N). In addition, the unions highlighted the financial situation of the sector's 'social fund', calling for employers’ contributions to the fund to be increased. FGTB/ABVV and CSC/ACV stated that 'a certain number of employers have not fulfilled their financial obligations with regard to the sector’s social fund' during the course of the last few years.

Employers' positions

The Febeltex textiles employers' organisation described the trade unions' demands as unrealistic: 'Febeltex does not understand at all the unrealistic attitude of the textiles trade unions. They are failing to respect the 5.4% norm in the intersectoral agreement by making 47 demands in total. If all these new costs were to be added up, the result would be an increase in the wage bill of 9.51%.'

For the employers, exceeding the centrally agreed pay norm would destroy employment in the sector and compromise the survival of the textiles industry. Febeltex claims that Belgian textiles firms already have a 13% handicap in wage costs with regard to their competitors in other countries and that an increase in the paybill following the last sectoral collective agreement (2001-2) had entailed the loss of more than 2,000 jobs. For Febeltex, the financial consequences of all the decisions and measures taken within the framework of a new collective agreement should therefore be calculated and charged on the basis of the intersectoral pay norm of 5.4%. Finally, the employers' organisation rejected, in an equally categorical manner, the unions’ wish to be able to negotiate time-credit schemes at company level.

Negotiations, strike and settlement

It was thus the pay increase, the waiting day for sick pay and the time-credit scheme that proved to be the stumbling blocks in the negotiations aimed at reaching a 2003-4 collective agreement for the textiles sector. These points of disagreement led to the negotiations being broken off. After some spontaneous action in response to this situation, a protest strike was launched jointly by the unions throughout the sector. It affected companies in Flanders, Nivelles, Mouscron Verviers and Liège for three days in late March 2003 and, according to the CSC/ACV, 35,000 workers (of a total of 40,000) took part.

For the unions, 'the employers in the textile industry are not afraid of behaving like demagogues' in invoking the economic situation as a reason for rejecting various union demands. They claimed that the 2,000 jobs lost over the past two years had nothing to do with union demands but 'had been caused mainly by poor management on the part of the employers in the sector'. Febeltex declared the strike action to be 'unjustifiable': 'In all the other sectors, the unions accept and understand that the economic situation is difficult and that the intersectoral wage norm should be respected. This is the situation in the timber sector, where the collective agreement increased costs by barely 4%, including indexation-linked increases, and also in the chemicals sector, with its highly qualified personnel, where the negotiators are accepting the intersectoral wage norm of 5.4%.'

Production in the textiles sector was finally resumed on 27 March after a preliminary agreement was signed the previous evening. This provides for an increase in the hourly wage rate of EUR 0.15 from 1 January 2004 as well as meal vouchers to the value of EUR 225 per worker. The waiting day for sick pay will be abolished for blue-collar workers with more than five years’ service. In addition, all the current early retirement schemes will be extended. It was decided that the future extension of the time-credit system will be left to the discretion of each employer - ie the maximum limit of 5% of personnel benefiting from the scheme may be exceeded at company level in agreement with the employer.

Commentary

While the textiles sector social partners have finally reached an agreement, it nevertheless appears to be the case that there are differences in interpretation, in relation to both the content and the conduct of the negotiations. With regard to the content, Febeltex considers that the agreement is still relatively costly and exceeds the wage norm, and that employment in the sector is jeopardised by it. For Dirk Uyttenhove, the president of the CSC/ACV-affiliated Textura union, the indicative wage norm has not been exceeded and the agreement is much weaker than the preceding one (2001-2). This situation can be explained by a combination of unfavourable economic circumstances.

These tensions have occurred in difficult circumstances, the whole sector having registered, over the last two years, both a fall in production (of 3.5% in 2002 and of 3.6% in 2000) and a fall in turnover (of 4% in 2002). This is probably partly due to pressure on retail prices because of fierce competition. For Febeltex, the prospects for 2003 remain uncertain, 'activity in the Belgian textiles industry being to a great extent dependent on the general economic climate'.

In terms of process, the strike action mounted by the united trade union front was perceived by the employers as being 'unreasonable' and 'irresponsible': 'having recourse to strike action does not constitute a means of getting more out of the employers than they can reasonable grant.' For Mr Uyttenhove of Textura, on the other hand, the employers’ reactions in the face of the strike action were unacceptable and called into question the use of the right to strike in Belgium: 11 companies, in fact, wanted to take legal action against workers acting as pickets. This runs counter to the code of conduct on collective disagreements signed by the intersectoral social partners on 28 March 2002 ( BE0110310N and BE0204301N). (Marinette Mormont, Institute des Science du Travail)