Meat and slaughterhouse bargaining approaches

In 2001, the Danish Food and Allied Workers' Union (NNF) negotiated a highly advantageous collective agreement in the meat factory and slaughterhouse industry, at a time when the sectoral employers' association, SA, was in a weak position. This agreement is due for renewal in early 2003, but with one major difference. SA has since joined the powerful Confederation of Danish Industries (DI) and it will be much more difficult for NNF to achieve such a good result. Among the union's demands is a new system enabling employees to choose freely between using part of their overall wage for higher pay increases, shorter working hours or more pension contributions.

In 2001, the Food and Allied Workers’ Union (Nærings- og Nydelsesforbundet, NNF) negotiated what was regarded as the best agreement in the union’s history in the meat factory and slaughterhouse sector, where the employers' organisation, the Association of Employers in the Slaughterhouse Sector (Slagteriernes Arbejdsgiverforening, SA), was relatively weak (DK0104117F). The deal included a wage increase of over 9% over two years. The two-year duration of the 2001 accord means that the next bargaining round will occur in early 2003, one year ahead of the renewal of the four-year collective agreements negotiated in 2000 in the major bargaining area covered by the Danish Employers’ Confederation (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, DA) and the Confederation of Danish Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen i Danmark, LO) (DK0002167F).

The spectacular outcome of the 2001 bargaining round in the meat and slaughterhouse sector gave rise to speculation about the course of the next bargaining round in 2003. It is widely believed that a repetition of the 2001 settlement will be impossible. In summer 2002, prior to the announcement of demands for the 2003 bargaining round, SA resigned from the Confederation of Employers’ Associations in Agriculture (Sammenslutningen af Landbrugets Arbejdsgiverforeninger, SALA), which is not affiliated to DA, and joined Denmark's largest sectoral employers' organisation, the DA-affiliated Confederation of Danish Industries (Dansk Industri, DI) (DK0208102F). Unlike SALA, DI will bargain directly on behalf of the employers in the meat and slaughterhouse sector. NNF and DI exchanged demands on 6 January 2003, and the first round of negotiations was due to start on 24 January.

Employers' demands

The slaughterhouse sector traditionally has varying workloads, and features much new technology, and the employers have therefore put flexible working time arrangements at the top of their agenda, as follows:

• normal working hours are currently between 06.00 and 17.00. The employers want to extend this framework for normal working time;

• an increased working week of 40 hours (rather than the normal 37) may currently be agreed locally. The employers want to permit agreements on even longer working weeks; and

• weekly working hours are fixed at present. The employers want to introduce new provisions on varying weekly working hours.

In addition to these specific demands about flexible working hours, DI also has a number of other demands:

• only the precise actual time during which overtime is performed should be paid. Currently overtime is calculated in full hours;

• wages should be paid every two weeks instead of weekly as at present;

• time off should be taken on an hourly basis. Currently, it can be taken only as full or half days;

• the framework agreement on piece-rate work and the development of working methods should be renegotiated;

• the observance of the collective agreement's peace obligation should be discussed, as the number of work stoppages is regarded as too high; and

• the current two-year term of the collective agreement should be discussed.

Choice between higher wages or shorter working hours

NNF has presented three main demands: higher wages; higher job security; and freedom of choice for workers between wages, pension contributions or time off. Still bearing in mind the dispute in 2001, the NNF bargaining committee has, however, also clearly indicated that it will seek a compromise. So far, NNF has not specified its demands in greater detail. The heading of higher wages includes general wage increases, better working time arrangements in connection with shift work, better occupational pension schemes and one extra day of paid holiday. This last demand would mean that slaughterhouse workers would be entitled to the five extra collectively agreed special days of leave (on top of the basic 25 days) which have been introduced in most other sectors.

The most interesting demand is that for 'freedom of choice'. A new wage system whereby employees are free to choose to part of their overall wage in the form of either more time off, better pension contributions, more training or higher wages has been discussed recently (DK0208101N), but this is the first time that it has been raised in the collective bargaining process. A similar system operates in the Swedish paper industry, where it is regarded as functioning well (SE9904153F). NNF argues that 2.5% of the paybill could be set aside for this purpose. The slaughterhouse workers may thus act as pioneers of what NNF calls 'flexible agreements' in Denmark. Whether this term has been carefully selected to tempt the employers is not known precisely, though their perception of flexibility is somewhat different. The focus on 'freedom of choice' may, however, suggest that this will be a recurrent theme in future negotiations.

Commentary

A highly unusual feature of the meat and slaughterhouse negotiations in 2001 was that the NNF members twice rejected compromise settlements in ballots – to the astonishment of their union's top leadership. The same leaders have now made it clear during a national tour of local branches that this will not be possible in 2003 with DI as the opposite party in bargaining. The members will have to trust the NNF leadership to negotiate an acceptable result. An important issue will be the term of the new collective agreement. NNF will again seek a duration of two years, while DI will probably try to bring this sector into step with the other sectors in the LO/DA field that will renew their agreements in 2004. This means that NNF will lose the special status which it has had by virtue of bargaining separately and at different times than the main LO/DA field.

A repeat of 2001, when the members rejected compromise settlements, seems inconceivable this time. Any lack of a proper mandate from the union's various structures, shop stewards and members for the bargaining committee might very well lead to the demise of NNF as an independent union. DI has never agreed to change a compromise settlement, not even if it has been rejected by union members. In 2001, the central employers' organisation to which the SA slaughterhouse employers' association was then affiliated, SALA, had no funds for a dispute. Now that it is a member of DI, Denmark’s largest sectoral employers' organisation, SA has the support of the employers’ very substantial overall dispute funds. Even the traditionally militant slaughterhouse workers (who again in 2002 recorded the country's largest number of work stoppages) will on this occasion probably prefer to present a thoroughly prepared list of demands and leave it to the negotiators to find the framework for a good compromise, rather than following the course they took in 2001. (Carsten Jørgensen, FAOS)