Lines have been drawn in negotiations, but the public sector remains
Ástráður Haraldsson, the state conciliation and meditation officer. mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson
The Confederation of Icelandic Enterprise (SA) and VR(retail and business) signed a wage agreement late Wednesday night, and with this agreement, SA has now negotiated with the vast majority of unions representing the private sector. A negotiated agreement has been reached with 115 to 120 thousand people, according to the state conciliation and meditation officer, but at SA's participating companies, about 70% of employees are employed in the private sector.
Over all, contracts have been closed in the public sector. Next steps will be contracts with trade unions of those who work within the public sector. These include contracts with BHM - the University Union, BSRB, and the Icelandic Teachers’ Union. There are about 40 thousand people within these unions.
The lines have been drawn
As has been reported, SA's long-term contracts were completed with the broad coalition of trade unions in the private sector labor market and professional unions. New contracts cover members of the Confederation of Icelandic Employees, Efling, Samiðnar, the Icelandic Electrical Industries Union, MATVÍS, Grafía, VM and VR/LÍV.
The vote and presentation of the agreements are now underway within the SA, the broad-based coalition, and the professional associations. SA believes that there is a strong likelihood that the agreements will be approved by a large majority. Whether this will happen, however, remains to be seen. The tone of the statement from the VR board of directors yesterday is at least not positive. They said that SA had tried to “blackmail workers” by holding a vote on banning a strike. At the same time, VR says it is entirely against government measures being funded by cuts or tax increases.
Ragnar Þór Ingólfsson, director of VR, and Sigríður Margrét Oddsdóttir, the managing director of SA butted heads before the contract was signed, with Oddsdóttir talking about voting for a ban on a pending strike of airport workers and Ingólfsson accusing SA of threatening stability over "moderate demands of a few workers". Thankfully, they managed to avert that situation and sign a deal. Composite image/Kristinn Magnússon
