Dacia Renault management challenges legality of Romania employees strike

The management of the Pitesti-based Dacia Renault plant has legally challenged the grounds of a general strike launched by its workers for an unlimited period on Monday, caused by what employees said was a lack of progress in negotiations over salary increases, Dacia communication manager Liviu Ion announced, quoted by Romanian news agency Mediafax. The official said the management complains that the union did not respect the four stages of negotiations before it launched the general strike.

Moreover, the management challenges the lists of union members as compared to what is claimed to be the number of employees on strike: managers argues that only half of the employees invoked by members unions were actually on strike, namely only 49%.

At his turn, deputy leader of the Dacia trade union Ion Iordache said that some 79% of the employees were on strike. He said that employees want higher salaries and the management failed to answer to their needs.

Both camps declare they were willing to start negotiations any time but no side makes any move to attempt to solve the problem. Dacia management showed in a company press release that the requested salary increase translated into an average increase of 64.2% which was not acceptable.