This success shows the strength and impact that comes from unity, from organising together at work and readiness to mobilise.

Trade unions in the company Mora Moravia in Hlubočky in the Olomouc region celebrated their success after a petition signed by three quarters of the workforce at a protest meeting led to a speedy conclusion of negotiations. Following the handover of the petition, it took only one further short round of negotiations and an agreement was signed with a top manager of the Gorenje Group from Slovenia and a representative of the Chinese owner. Seven previous negotiation rounds had yielded no results.

„We are pleased with the new collective agreement we have reached for this year. The meeting was frank, constructive and factual. We did everything we could to meet our colleagues’ expectations”, stated the chairwoman of the local OS KOVO union Dana Stiborová after the meeting.

Dana Stiborova and several colleagues had participated earlier in an industriAll Europe training on building trade union power, where they learned how to mobilise and activate workers. This inspired the protest meeting organised by OS KOVO members in front of the company’s administrative building as well as the petition addressed by the trade union to all workers. More than three quarters of the 600 employees expressed their support to the negotiation team. 

According to Tamas Valasek, Vice President of OS KOVO, this is clearly a success of our actions aimed at building trade union power. “After the industriAll Europe training on organising with leaders of OS KOVO unions, the local OS KOVO representative at Mora Moravia changed the negotiation strategy. The focus was placed on the power of workers. The union initiated a petition and talked to all workers directly and this was a great success.”

The negotiating team managed to ensure a 3,5 % basic wage increase plus increases in bonuses and other wage elements, resulting in a total wage increase of around 5.5%. “We congratulate our Czech colleagues on this result. It shows the strength and impact that comes from unity, from organising together at work and readiness to mobilise“ commented Luc Triangle, General Secretary of industriAll Europe.

Please find related press news in Czech here

For more information please contact industriAll Europe's strategic organiser Ildikó Kren