The Sozialistische LinksPartei (SLP) has, for several years now, identified this section of the workforce as one where struggles were likely to erupt. 60% of the workforce are forced into part-time work, wages are up to 20% lower than the average paid in Austria. Poverty pay is a dire reality for most of these workers, who also face the brunt of austerity cuts, under-staffing and privatisation. Short term contracts and precarious work are a fact of life. 70% of the workforce are women, many of them migrant workers.
Short term contracts and precarious work are a fact of life. 70% of the workforce are women, many of them migrant workers.
In 2018 and 2019, the Austrian trade union bureaucracy barely succeeded in preventing a serious strike movement in this sector. This year, things look different. The union leadership not only misjudged the anger of the workforce, but also underestimated how determined the employers are to play hard ball. By deliberately limiting demands for this year’s pay negotiation to the question of lowering the working week from 38 hours to 35 hours without also demanding a pay rise, they thought they could win a compromise.
The employers, many of which are charity organisations, depend on national and/or local government subsidies and have proved unwilling to compromise so far, pointing to budget restrictions enforced by the government. They claim they have little room to manoeuvre, not even “just” to shorten the working week. There is also huge political pressure on these employers not to concede a shorter working week for fear they would whet the appetite for similar measures in other industries.
Agreements should be put to a democratic vote
Workers on the other hand are more than willing to take action and fight. They have not forgotten the betrayals of previous years. There has been a hardening of the mood among activists to not let the leadership get away with another sell out. Proposals put forward by SLP that all negotiation agreements should be put to a democratic vote by the workers before being implemented are readily accepted by the workforce. So are demands that the unions should not limit their struggle to the question of working hours. There should be a pay increase way above inflation rates. SLP activists are also popularising the idea that different struggles in the social and care sector should be linked up. We argue for a single pay claim for the whole industry in order to prevent different employers from undercutting each other.
This is vital as not all employers are part of the same collective bargaining agreement. Many employers belong to the “SWÖ” Employers federation. However, large scale care providers like the church owned “Caritas” hold separate pay negotiations. This year, Caritas workers took strike action for the first time in post-war Austrian history. This is a vital step forwards, even though the Caritas strike took place on a different day than that called by the SWÖ. Militant activists and SLP-members are demanding that future strikes should happen on a genuinely joint basis, on the same day. SLP members are actively involved in promoting unity by encouraging and organising joint strike rallies, speaking at workers’ assemblies, building demonstrations and generally making the case for widening the struggle.
The trade union leaders are desperate to prevent this happening. They routinely attempt to shout down demands for a democratic vote at workplace meetings, whenever they are raised. The demand for a vote is a sign of “distrust” towards trade union officials and works council members, they argue. Trust has to be earned though. The best way to earn trust is to put decisions to a democratic vote by the workforce.
The best way to earn trust is to put decisions to a democratic vote by the workforce.
“We are social, not stupid” network.
SLP-members working in the social and care work sector participate in the “We are social, not stupid” network. This has developed into a vital instrument to engage with the more combative layers of the workforce. Austrian trade unions do not allow for any membership involvement and there is no tradition of democratic workplace bodies involving more than the elected shop stewards, when they exist. Even works council members only have limited ability to put pressure on an unaccountable and remote full-time apparatus. The activists network therefore provides a much needed democratic space to debate strategy and implement ideas to take the strike forward and put the trade union leaders under pressure. The network also promotes militancy during the dispute — in recent years it played an important role in organising protest action from below, now many strike rallies are organised by activists of, and with the help of the network, while the official trade union structures, afraid to lose control, play a much more passive role.
The “We are social, not stupid” network is, in outline, what in the future could develop into a serious and combative left wing network among social — and care sector workers. Leaflets produced by this network go down well at the strike meetings. Consciousness among the workers is moving in a more radical direction and they are pressurising the union leaders to go further than they are happy with.
Preparing for the future
After seven rounds of negotiations and the next strike-demonstration planned for 10th March, a growing mood is developing that after the strike, there can be no going back to the passivity of the days gone past. Whatever happens with the current dispute, the chances are that the more combative and left-wing forces in the union will be strengthened.
This is a vital development coming not a moment too soon, as Austria is expected to soon experience the consequences of the wider social, political and economic crises unfolding in Europe and on a world scale. Already a new refugee crisis is possibly unfolding, just as municipal councils including Vienna City Council are in the process of agreeing new austerity budgets. This will be a feature in upcoming local elections, providing an opportunity to put forward political demands to end privatisation and competition in the social care sector, to massively increase public finance to provide for the pay increases desperately needed and to introduce democratic forms of public ownership. It is urgent that now the rich should pay for the crisis they themselves created.
As importantly, a number of Austrian industries are putting in pay claims for sectoral pay bargaining in April. The current strikes could provide an example for these workers to follow.
