The Trade Union of Metalworkers and Miners of Ukraine (PMGU) demanded a 30 per cent wage increase for nearly 24,000 workers at the ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih steel plant to reach the wage level of industry competitors and cover inflation.
One thousand workers took part in a protest rally organised by PMGU on 30 March to express their objection to the company’s unilateral decision to increase wages by only five per cent from 1 May 2021. Ukraine has a high inflation rate and increase of consumer prices, which for 2020 reached 27 per cent for utility bills, 37 per cent for electricity tariffs, and 19 to 56 per cent for bread, pasta, flour, cereals, eggs and sugar. The increase of five per cent imposed by company management is in fact a significant wage cut.
The management decision on wage levels was taken unilaterally, without union involvement, in violation of the collective agreement that states that determination of the increase shall be carried out annually based on the company’s performance, and with union approval. The previous wage increase took place in May 2019, with workers patiently waiting two years for an increase, mindful of the employer’s challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The unilateral decision is seen as a blatant breach of the principle of negotiation in good faith.
Natalya Marynyuk, local chair of PMGU at ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, said that since September 2020, the union has addressed the CEO seven times regarding the wage increase and insisted that negotiations be sped up. However, for almost half a year, management has deliberately impeded the negotiation process in order to postpone the date of the wage increase for as long as possible.
