Friday April 11, 08:27 PM
Romanian car workers end strike after new management offer
BUCHAREST (AFP) - Workers at French-owned Romanian car plant Dacia called off a strike of more than two weeks Friday after accepting a new pay offer, a management spokesman said.
"The strike is over and work resumed at 1:00 pm," Liviu Ion told AFP, while union leader Nocilae Pavelescu told the Realitatea news channel, "It (Frankfurt: A0MLX5 - news) 's a compromise for both sides."
The deal came two days after unions rejected an earlier offer as a court rejected a management application to rule illegal the strike declared on March 24.
A mass rally by several thousand workers at the Pitesti factory on Thursday was followed by new proposals which were put to the strikers on Friday after talks late into the night.
The deal provides for a monthly rise of 360 lei (97 euros), of which 300 will be back-dated to January 1 and the remaining 60 payable from September 1, plus an annual bonus of at least 900 lei.
The strikers had been seeking a monthly increase of 550 lei (about 148 euros), plus larger bonuses.
The strike, which severely hit production of Renault (Paris: FR0000131906 - news) 's successful bottom-end Logan model, had been backed by union representatives from France.
Union leader Pavelescu said that opinions about the deal were differing in the workshops, but he added: "as 70 percent of workers agree with the proposal, we decided to resume work".
A new collective labour agreement is to be signed shortly.
Pavelescu said that the Mioveni plant, located about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the capital, would again be fully operational from Monday. This was later confirmed by Dacia's spokesman.
Management did not give figures of production losses due to the strike but was convinced that 2008 targets could still be met.
"Unions and management are committed to reaching this year's target figures, set at about 350,000 units," management spokesman Ion told AFP.
Dacia, Romania's leading carmaker, was bought in 1999 by Renault, and achieved record sales last year of more than 230,000 vehicles in Romania and for export, a 17.4 percent increase compared to 2006.
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