By Sean Healy
BRUSSELS "Workers across Europe appear to have taken strength from the spectacular victory of Air France employees ... In Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and France, employers are facing increasing militancy as they demand job cuts and flexibility", laments Britain's Financial Times.
In the last two weeks 120,000 construction workers demonstrated in Bonn against social welfare cuts and the government's proposal to cut their winter lay-off payments; in Italy there was a four-hour general strike against the government's inaction on unemployment; French airports were complete closed; and airports in Portugal were briefly closed by pitched battles between workers and police which hospitalised dozens.
The four-hour general strike in Italy was called by the leaderships of the three union federations, three weeks after a demonstration of 150,000 workers in Rome in support of a shorter work week with no loss in pay. The Rome rally was organised through the workers' factory councils and by the National Forum for the Alternative, a permanent forum for debate between opposition groups in the unions initiated by the Party of Communist Refoundation.
In Germany, tens of thousands of coal, steel and farm workers are organising protests against cuts in production quotas leading to job losses while the government is cutting back on unemployment benefits. Thousands of steelworkers blocked the autobahn for several hours in late October, protesting against government-imposed austerity. Ten thousand jobs are earmarked to go in the German steel and coal industries.
On October 16, 50,000 people in London rallied to protest against the rise of racism, itself a product of economic crisis. On November 5, more than 250,000 public service employees went on strike against privatisation and the market-testing of their jobs.
Massive farmer protests are expected later in the year in France with the completion of the Uruguay Round of GATT, involving large-scale cuts in agricultural subsidies.
In Spain in early October, unions stormed out of negotiations, over a social pact, with the government and employers. Students in their hundreds of thousands occupied the streets of Madrid in opposition to rises in tuition fees.
Spanish union leaders warn that the announced closure of Seat car factory will lead not just to the loss of the 9000 car workers in Barcelona but another 100,000 throughout Spain. Unemployment in Spain is already over 22%. Unions have promised a fight to defend their jobs with a day of action being planned and a half-day strike in all Seat's Volkswagen factories.
A coordinated campaign is being discussed between the Spanish UGT union federation and the German IG Metall metalworkers' union. Volkswagen in Germany has announced it will cut its wages bill by 20%, claiming workers must choose between a four-day work week and 30,000 job losses. The union is opposed to both.
Speculation has already begun as to whether certain European governments — particularly, the French and Italian — can weather the storm with their austerity policies intact.
"French union leaders, as well as workers on the shop floor, are determined they will no longer make sacrifices for an economic policy they no longer believe", complains the European. Louis Vianney, leader of the CGT, the French Communist union federation, called for employees to strike in every company planning redundancies.
A French day of action for unions in the public sector is planned for November 18. Only 8% of the French work force is unionised, but this is concentrated in the state-run and public sector.
Meeting in Brussels on the day of the Belgian general strike, the leaders of the 12 European Community countries diplomatically overlooked Europe's 20 million unemployed and Brussels' empty streets to reaffirm their commitment to Maastricht.
The meeting was dedicated to dividing up the sites of the future European institutions. The EC debate on unemployment has been delayed until at least December.