The last meeting between management and staff representatives took place on Tuesday at Guardian Luxembourg (Luxguard). The result: negotiations failing, according to information from French daily LeQuotidien, confirmed by Alain Rolling, in charge of the case at the OGBL. A conclusion he "strongly regrets".

However, a job retention plan was signed on 31 August for 150 of the 201 glass producer employees whose jobs were threatened (out of 453 in the grand duchy, in Bascharage and Dudelange). Those individuals will be able to take advantage, for example, of early retirement and reclassification. The union has managed to find solutions for the others, but 45 remain sidelined. The OGBL wanted to extend the job retention plan for several years in order to find a solution for them, but management refused. "They do not give us time," the trade unionist said. The OGBL worries about people of "a certain age" who may have difficulty finding new jobs, "especially in this time of covid", and whose severance pay is reportedly insufficient.

Going to the national conciliation office

Paperjam tried to reach management, who had not answered at the time of writing. “They receive their instructions from Michigan [editor’s note: in the US, where the group’s headquarters are based]. When we suggest something, they pull out, call Michigan and come back to us,” Rolling said. "I twice asked to speak to the head of Guardian Europe (in Bertrange), but he refused."

The next step will therefore be to go to the national conciliation office. "We signed the non-agreement on the social plan yesterday," Rolling said, although he is awaiting a meeting. The conciliator will then have a few weeks to try to come to an agreement between the two parties. Otherwise, "everyone will have to take responsibility," he fears. But "we are not talking about a strike yet," he warned.

This article was originally published in French on Paperjam.lu and has been edited and translated for Delano.