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NEWS & LETTERS, JULY 2003
Our Life and Times by Kevin A. Barry
Europe's labor unrest
Mass protest strikes to defend hard-won gains have hit
France and Austria. The French strikes have gone on almost weekly for over six
weeks. They reached their peak when millions walked off their jobs and one
million came out onto the streets, in the greatest mass outpouring since 1995. The strikers have opposed proposals by the rightist
government for both cutbacks in the national pension plan and education
“reforms.” To receive a full pension, one would have to work not 37.5 years,
as today, but 40 years by 2008 and 42 by 2020. This would discriminate harshly
against working women, who on the average work fewer years in full-time paid
employment. The government also wants to “decentralize” education, which
would lead to pay cuts for non-teaching staff and greater social inequality
among schools. The strikes continued through May and June. Large
strikes on June 3 disrupted much of the economy, with postal, transport, and
schools deeply affected and one million taking to the streets in demonstrations. Workers from the ranks attacked the labor bureaucracy,
which had shied away from an unlimited general strike that would have continued
until the proposals were shelved. During a debate on June 4 at a big Paris rail
station, one shop floor delegate from the General Confederation of Labor (CGT)
stated: “Afterwards, an accounting will be demanded of the unions that
betrayed us.” As we went to press, parliament was poised to vote through the
pension changes, but the education proposals had been withdrawn for now. During these weeks, Austrian workers battled a new
pension policy that is to cut benefits by 20%, affecting working women the most.
The retirement age will also be raised from 59 to 65. On May 6, the biggest
strikes since World War II shut down urban transport and schools, with many
workers holding mass indoor meetings at work to air their grievances. On June 3,
an even bigger general strike occurred, with private and government workers
participating. Nonetheless, the conservative-dominated parliament rammed through
the pension cuts a few days later. In Germany, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has proposed a “Plan 2010” that would cut unemployment and health benefits and make layoffs easier. After he was booed at a May Day rally outside Frankfurt, a furious debate took place within the SPD. By June 1, however, SPD leaders had caved in to Schroeder, who now uses the Margaret Thatcher slogan, “There is no alternative.” |
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