Negotiation on decent wages and working conditions at FIAT plant in Serbia must start now!Today marks the 20th day of strike for the trade unions and 2,000 workers at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Group’s subsidiary in Serbia – FCA Srbija – as their repeated requests to local management to start negotiations on wages and working conditions remained unanswered. Both the critical employment situation of FCA Srbija workers and management refusal to enter negotiation in breach of the Serbian law on strike have raised a wave of protest and solidarity that goes beyond Serbian borders. industriAll European Trade Union and IndustriALL Global Union continue to bring their full support to FCA Srbija workers and unions in their fight for decent work and urge FCA Group management to intervene immediately vis-à-vis their local representative to solve the industrial dispute.

On June 27, FCA Srbija workers and unions took the strong decision to go on strike because of local management refusal to hold negotiations to find agreed solutions to workers’ critical employment conditions (see our web news dated 6th July). The reorganization of the production in two shifts instead of three shifts and the non-replacement of absent colleagues on maternity or sick leave have led to unacceptable work intensification and deteriorated working conditions. Trade unions have thus demanded the opening of negotiations on a new organisation of production aimed at relieving the workload thanks to a reduction of the saturation and the recruitment of staff, as well as on compensation for extra costs incurred for commuting outside of standard working hours. In addition, FCA Srbija workers ask for a wage increase and the payment of the 2017 and 2018 bonuses as agreed at the last bargaining round. The Serbian law on strike obliges the employer to launch negotiations with the strike committee within 5 days so as to resolve the dispute, something FCA local management failed to do despite having received orders from the National Labour Inspectorate. The crisis is so severe that it does not go unnoticed: transnational trade union support is rapidly growing with solidarity messages, including visit on site, coming from fellow unions from Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Spain and even worldwide via FCA-CNHInd Global Union network. industriAll European Trade Union and IndustriALL Global Union fully back workers’ decision to go on strike and urge FCA Group management to fully respect workers’ rights to strike and collective action.

One of the stated key pillar of FCA Group’s Code of Conduct is to “conduct the FCA Group’s business in full compliance with applicable laws and regulations”. industriAll European Trade Union and IndustriALL Global Union are thus confident that FCA Group will live up to its Corporate Social Responsibility commitments. They thus reiterate their call on FCA Group management to intervene immediately so as to ensure that the dispute is solved and common beneficial solutions found through constructive social dialogue (see attached letter). “industriAll European Trade Union and IndustriALL Global Union are fully committed to the fight against precarious work and have been campaigning for more and better-quality jobs throughout Europe. We thus stand in full solidarity with our members, the independent metal workers unions of Serbia - SSMS - and the sectoral trade union in industry, energy and mining sector GS IER “Nezavisnost”, as well as with FCA Srbija workers to strive for decent wages and working conditions”, said Luc Triangle, General Secretary of industriAll European Trade Union and Valter Sanchez, General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union.

Contact: Aline Conchon, aline.conchon@industriall-europe.eu, +32 2226 0054

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