General meeting of Staff @ F4E
European Joint Undertaking for ITER and the Development of Fusion Energy (‘Fusion for Energy’). F4E is located at Barcelona (Spain).
The General Staff Meeting held at F4E on 24 November 2017 was a great success, highlighted by a very large attendance (more than 200 people) and a very heated discussion for two hours.
Many issues important to the staff of the agency were addressed, including renewal of contracts, career development, as well as evaluation and promotion. The general sentiment of staff and trade unions alike was the imperative need to improve the social dialogue in F4E, in particular by agreeing a structured framework, as exists in many other agencies.
Following the General Assembly, staff and union representatives met with the F4E Director, Johannes Schwemmer. A draft framework agreement was proposed to the Director to put in place a framework for discussion between the Unions and the agency.
The next meeting between the Unions and Mr. Schwemmer to discuss, and hopefully agree, on a framework agreement is scheduled for 26 January 2018.
We would like to thank everyone for their support. We will keep you updated on the progress of this issue.
U4U meets the staff of the JU’s (kick-off meeting June2017)
On Friday the 9th of June 2017 U4U organised a meeting with the colleagues of the Jus to take stock of staff management issues and to introduce itself and its activities. The following JUs were represented:
• Innovative Medicines 2 (IMI2): to develop next generation vaccines, medicines and treatments, such as new antibiotics ;
• Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 (FCH2): to accelerate market introduction of clean and efficient technologies in energy and transport ;
• Clean Sky 2 (CS2): to develop cleaner, quieter aircraft with significantly less CO2 emissions ;
• Bio-based Industries (BBI): to use renewable natural resources and innovative technologies for greener everyday products ;
• Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership (ECSEL): to boost Europe’s electronics manufacturing capabilities ;
• Shift2Rail: to develop better trains and railway infrastructure that will drastically reduce costs and improve capacity, reliability and punctuality.
The meeting was very well attended by around 50 colleagues representing more than 1/3 of all staff members which shows the necessity of the involvement of U4U. The most important message of the meeting was that in union there is strength (Union for Unity).
Following this meeting a new one will be scheduled with the staff representatives of each JU for a more in depth discussion on the concerns of the staff, as well as to compare the existing practices and to define weaknesses and potential improvements.
In addition, we will have regularly meetings with all staff members to follow up on the issues.