The meeting of the Siemens union representatives from the Czech Republic with representatives from Germany, Austria and Slovakia has a long tradition. These meetings started in 1995.

From Czech Republic, the locations at Mohelnice (Motors), Letohrad/Králíky (Circuit Breakers, fuses), Frenštát (Motors), Brno (Turbines), Drásov (Generators), Trutnov (Switch technology) and Štetí (Paper mill maintenance) were represented.

For the first time, two representatives from the union at Siemens Hungary took part in the meeting. They were representing the Siemens locations at Budapest (Turbine parts, transformers).

Harald Kern, the chairman of the Siemens European Works Council (Siemens Europe Committee) and member of the supervisory board of Siemens, and Dirk Linder were representing the German union IG Metall.

The meeting was chaired by Jaroslav Soucek (Vice president) and Dana Sakarova (International Department) from the Czech Metalworkers’ Union OS KOVO.

Jaroslav Soucek gave informations about the political and economic situation at the Czech Republic from OS KOVO’s point of view. OS KOVO is trying to take influence on the Czech legislation at several issues to protect the interests of the Czech workers and to improve their situation. He also informed about the change of OS KOVO’s former president, Josef Stredula, to the union federation CMKOS.

Harald Kern gave some information about the current situation at Siemens and the structural changes that will be carried out under the new CEO, Mr. Kaeser. The participants of the meeting also discussed the issues of how to improve the union situation at the various Siemens locations, of contract workers, of flexibility of working time (working time accounts), of work-related diseases and maternity protection.

» The Czech version of this text can be downloaded via the link above (Czech-Version.pdf)