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BANK

Strike looms as Swedish bank union locks horns

Talks have broken down between Sweden's Financial Sector Union and an industry association over the wages and employment conditions of its 30,000 members.

Published: 18 February 2011 16:15 CET

“In light of the responsibility the Financial Sector Union’s members shouldered during the financial crisis… and the results the Swedish banks are posting, we would expect a greater willingness to guarantee each member a salary increase to maintain their buying power,” said union negotiator Ulrika Boëthius in a statement on Friday.

The Financial Sector Union (Finansförbundet) has been negotiating since October 2010 with the Banking Institutions’ Employer Organisation (Bankinstitutens Arbetsgivareorganisation, BAO) over the wages and employment conditions of its 30,000 members in the banking and finance industries.

The most recent contract expired at the end of last year and has been extended since then. The union has stated that it will not be possible to come to an agreement on a new contract.

“We were prepared to negotiate further, but the employers were not willing to waive their source claims,” Ulrika Boëthius said.

“With the lack of cooperation we encountered from the employers’ side, we see that we are forced to cancel the contract and prepare for a possible conflict notice. In that case, a new contract would come into force by March 5th at the earliest,” she added.

Boëthius pointed out that Swedish banks pulled in over 50 billion kronor ($7.8 billion) in profit after loan losses and taxes in 2010, while a 3 percent wage increase for her organisation’s members would cost about 600 million kronor.

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FARMING

WTO rules US tariffs on Spanish olives breach rules

A US decision to slap steep import duties on Spanish olives over claims they benefited from subsidies constituted a violation of international trade rules, the World Trade Organisation ruled Friday.

Published: 22 November 2021 11:34 CET
WTO rules US tariffs on Spanish olives breach rules
Farmers had just begun harvesting olives in southern Spain when former US President Donald Trump soured the mood with the tariffs' announcement. Photo: Jorge Guerrero/AFP

Former US president Donald Trump’s administration slapped extra tariffs on Spain’s iconic agricultural export in 2018, considering their olives were subsidised and being dumped on the US market at prices below their real value.

The combined rates of the anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties go as high as 44 percent.

The European Commission, which handles trade policy for the 27 EU states, said the move was unacceptable and turned to the WTO, where a panel of experts was appointed to examine the case.

In Friday’s ruling, the WTO panel agreed with the EU’s argument that the anti-subsidy duties were illegal.

But it did not support its stance that the US anti-dumping duties violated international trade rules.

The panel said it “recommended that the United States bring its measures into conformity with its obligations”.

EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis hailed the ruling, pointing out that the US duties “severely hit Spanish olive producers.”

Demonstrators take part in a 2019 protest in Madrid, called by the olive sector
Demonstrators take part in a 2019 protest in Madrid called by the olive sector to denounce low prices of olive oil and the 25 percent tariff that Spanish olives and olive oil faced in the United States. (Photo by PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)
 

“We now expect the US to take the appropriate steps to implement the WTO ruling, so that exports of ripe olives from Spain to the US can resume under normal conditions,” he said.

The European Commission charges that Spain’s exports of ripe olives to the United States, which previously raked in €67 million ($75.6 million) annually, have shrunk by nearly 60 percent since the duties were imposed.

The office of the US Trade Representative in Washington did not immediately comment on the ruling.

According to WTO rules, the parties have 60 days to file for an appeal.

If the United States does file an appeal though, it would basically amount to a veto of the ruling.

That is because the WTO Appellate Body — also known as the supreme court of world trade — stopped functioning in late 2019 after Washington blocked the appointment of new judges.

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