Workers at Achema, fertiliser manufacturer and one of the biggest industrial plants in Lithuania, are threatening with a strike as the company refuses to sign a collective agreement.
Trade union officials say Achema's plant in Jonava, in central Lithuania, will have to be shut down for safety, but there is still a chance that the strike will be called off if management and workers come to an agreement.
Although Achema has offered a 3.5-percent raise to production workers, union representatives say the company is refusing to sign a collective agreement that would put in place a new remuneration system.
The indefinite strike is to start on Tuesday and involve around half of Achema's 1,300-strong workforce.
“Nothing is changing. On Monday morning, we were informed about the 3.5-percent pay rise for the production staff, but there has been no word about a collective agreement,” Birutė Daškevičienė, the trade union's chairwoman, told BNS.
She said workers were still registering for the would-be strike, so the exact number was still unclear.
“It's very difficult to say. My prediction would be about 600,” she said. “We encourage people to register and inform the employer by the end of the day [Monday] so that the employer can see the scale.”
According to Daškevičienė, there is still a chance of reaching a deal on a collective agreement.
If there is a strike, however, Achema will have to halt production at its Jonava plant, she said.
“The company must take the appropriate decisions and safely shut down, by February 8, all equipment that cannot operate without constant supervision of the workers,” Daškevičienė said in a statement.
Last week, Achema said that its chemical plant was listed as a strategically important facility and could not be halted so easily as to avoid endangering the environment and people.
According to data from the state social insurance fund Sodra, salaries in Achema averaged 2,300 euros before taxes in late 2021.
Currently, about 37 percent of Achema's 1,300 employees are members of the trade union.
Eighty-one percent of the trade union's members, or around 30 percent of Achema's workers, last December approved a decision to call a strike.
Achema is the largest fertiliser producer in the Baltic states and its plant is the biggest single consumer of natural gas in Lithuania.
Achema was one of few big industrial operations that survived and successfully adapted to Lithuania's transition to market economy in the 1990s. It was privatised by the plant's then manager Bronislovas Lubys, who became one of the richest people in the country, a distinction passed on to his wife Lyda Lubienė after his death in 2011.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
