Dacia employees in general strike

Luni, 24 martie 2008, 13:00 English | Business

Over ten thousand employees of Renault-owned Romanian car-maker Dacia entered a general strike at the Pitesti-based factory starting with 7 am on Monday morning after union members failed to reach an agreement during negotiations with the management to increase salary benefits, Romanian news agency Mediafax informs.

The company's management failed to cater for the salary growth requested by union leaders. Some 80% of the 13.000 employees from Dacia Renault agreed with the strike. Deputy union leader Ion Iordache declared that the strike was inevitable given the attitude of the management.

He said that union members were open to dialogue and were ready to sit at the negotiation table. However, Dacia management showed in a company press release that the salary increase requested translated into an average increase of 64.2% which was not acceptable.

Employees request that their holiday benefits be doubled but Dacia representatives argue that last year, the average salary was above the economy's average in the industry. Thus, the company announced that, if employees join the strike, a compromise offer will be withdrawn.

Dacia Renault sales increased by 62.6% in the first months of the year up to 40,896 cars, out of which 38,711 were automobiles and 2,185 were commercial cars. The last general strike in Pitesti took place in 2002 and lasted 3 days.