We congratulate OS KOVO and all its members and workers on their tireless efforts that have paid off. We stand with you in your demands

Trade unions have succeeded in obtaining an 8% wage increase at Nexen Tire, Bitozevs in Žatec (Czechia) after a week of strikes.
Following negotiations between the leadership of OS KOVO and representatives of the Korean owned company, trade unions succeeded in enforcing a significant part of their demands. 

The agreement negotiated today includes an 8% wage increase, effective from 1st March this year. It also includes financial compensation for not raising wages throughout 2022 and during the first three months of this year. The wage increase amounts to 20,000 CZK, the equivalent of 840 EUR.
The remaining points of the collective agreement will be discussed and, according to the agreement, should be signed by the end of March at the latest.
However, trade unions have warned that the end of the strike is conditional and if the company does not honour today's agreement, workers will return on strike.

The strike at Nexen Tire started on Tuesday, 31 January, with a demonstration in front of the plant in Bitozeves (Czechia), after efforts to agree on a collective agreement with the management of Nexen Tire failed. Nexen Tire’s management turned to the courts with a request for a preliminary injunction to declare the strike illegal and prevent it. At the same time, the management tried to fill the jobs of the strike-breakers, offering new recruits higher wages than those of the workers on strike. 

After numerous days of strike action and widespread support from European trade unions, the management has agreed to a collective agreement and to a wage increase.

Luc Triangle, General Secretary of industriAll Europe, commented

“We congratulate OS KOVO and all its members and workers on their tireless efforts that have paid off. We stand with you in your demands and will continue to do so throughout your bargaining process. 

“Industriall European Trade Union condemns any anti-trade-union attitudes. The refusal to sit at the bargaining table to negotiate an adequate collective bargaining agreement is completely unacceptable.

We now hope that the management of Nexen Tire will honour its side of the collective agreement, as negotiated."

OS KOVO Press Release

IndustriAll Europe Collectibe Bargaining Conference motion