KGHM Unions Continue Push for 10% Salary Increase 2007-03-12 11:25 (New York)
By Nathaniel Espino
March 12 (Bloomberg) -- KGHM Polska Miedz SA's labor unions
rejected management's offer of a pay increase this year and will
continue their push for a 10 percent raise. The copper producer
repeated its rejection of the demand.
Lubin, southwest-Poland based KGHM, which mines more of the
metal in Europe than any competitor, on Friday said it would lift
basic salaries by 5.7 percent, which when combined with an annual
bonus would give an overall increase of 12.1 percent.
``There is no acceptance of this offer,'' Ryszard Zbrzyzny,
leader of the Zwiazek Zawodowy Pracownikow Przemyslu Miedziowego
union, said in a telephone interview today. ``All the unions say
5.7 percent doesn't satisfy us, and it should be 10 percent.'' He
called the management's decision ``unilateral'' and said unions
will take further action in the next few days.
KGHM, the world's eighth-largest copper producer, agreed in
January to raise its bonus payout from 2006 net income by about
two-thirds, after rejecting union demands for a bigger bonus
throughout the second half of 2006.
The company doesn't plan to offer any more and the current
proposal would bring the average monthly wage at the company to
7,700 zloty ($2,620) a month, spokeswoman Alina Urban said by
phone today. Average gross wages in Poland were 2,664 zloty a
month in January, according to government statistics.
``In the opinion of the management board, a raise of 5.7
percent, or 12.1 percent including the bonus, is decent
compensation,'' Urban said.
--Additional reporting by Katarzyna Klimasinska. Editor: Jefferson
If these guys go on strike, copper will spurt upwards. Plus there are some strikes happening in Zambia. |
