След решение, взето по време на последната среща на Секция Докери в ЕТФ, бе съставено писмо, изпратено до компания P & O (която оперира в Европа), в което се заявява несъгласието на ЕТФ да бъдат замразени заплатите на служителите, предложено в програмата на самата компания за 2013.

Моля, запознайте се с писмото …

То: Mr. Peter Jones

Head of Employee Relationship and
Continental Human Resources

Dear Mr Jones,

The ETF (European Transport Workers’ Federation) represents more than 2.5 million workers in all
transport modes from 243 trade unions in 41 countries.

We are writing to you concerning the pay freeze that P&O is proposing to its employees in the various
European countries where your company operates, and which was debated during recent ETF
meetings.

By applying a pay freeze the company de facto denounces the collective agreements that had been
negotiated with the unions. This is not acceptable for the ETF and its affiliates, as we believe
collective negotiations are the only possible way to set working conditions and that collectively
negotiated pay levels cannot be altered unilaterally.

We are aware that the RoRo sector is experiencing a difficult economic situation, which is mainly due
to the extra costs caused by the use of low sulphur fuels. As this is a major concern also for workers,
in the recent past ETF affiliates have showed their interest to discuss with the management the
implication of the use of low sulphur fuel for the company and to find shared solutions to anticipate
the foreseeable problems. However, the management probably felt that such issue was not to be
tackled jointly with the workers and did not enter in a dialogue with the unions. As a consequence, we
are now in a situation where the company wants the workers to pay these extra costs by freezing
employees’ salary for the years to come.
Workers are not willing to pay for this!

We are aware that at the beginning of March the company will meet with some of our affiliates to
discuss the situation. We hope that the management is ready to enter in open and meaningful
negotiations with the unions and to listen to workers’ proposals and demands. The ETF and their
members will keep monitoring future developments very closely and will certainly be ready to show
international solidarity to the workers confronted with this critical situation.

ЕТF General Secretary

Eduardo Chagas