At the meeting in Copenhagen on 15 and 16 April 2014, 50 IKEA shop stewards and union delegates from 15 countries in Europe, Asia and North America came together to discuss the achievements of the Alliance over the past year and to agree a new action plan.
Representatives from UNI's Turkish affiliate Koop-Is spoke about the positive changes at the company since the Alliance last met in May 2013. At that time IKEA management had been uninvited from the meeting in response to the company's unwillingness to seriously address the anti-union campaign by local management in Turkey. Since then an action plan has been agreed between Inter-IKEA and local management at Mapa (franchisee of IKEA in Turkey) which aims to improve compliance with the company's Code of Conduct and to develop constructive labour relations with the union.
The Alliance will continue to support Koop-Is in its organising drive which is looking to achieve majority union representation and start collective negotiations.
Representatives from UNI affiliate The Teamsters in Canada explained their challenges after local management refused to agree a new collective agreement in May last year and instead locked the workers out of the store. Many efforts have been made over the past months on local and global level and with the support of UNI and the Alliance to resolve the conflict. For most of the bargaining issues agreement has been reached. But the insistence of local management to remove a clause from the agreement which gives the workers union security has prevented workers from being able to return to work.
And a successful organising drive by The Teamsters at a Distribution Centre in Tacoma, USA, demonstrates that IKEA can do better.
In contrast to the above, representatives from many countries, including Australia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Malaysia reported that they had excellent relations with the company and that any issues are addressed in a constructive way through dialogue and negotiations. Unions in those countries have free access to the workplace to talk to workers about their rights and the union.
One of the main concerns of participants was the ever increasing workload by non-replacement of workers leaving the company and a high level of part-timers. This leads to serious health issues among company employees. Representatives from Belgium furthermore reported about a health&safety concern they are currently dealing with at the loading docks of the stores where toxic substances have been found in delivery lorries. Measures have been taken to protect workers directly exposed and a process is underway to identify those substances and their origins.
Finally participants agreed a new action plan which reiterates the Alliance's call for a Global Agreement with UNI and agreed solidarity actions for countries where labour relations are not as constructive as they should be.
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