Mass strike hits cuts n Belgium
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-09-22Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 16 →
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TRANSPORT workers, postal workers; teachers and many other public service workers are on strike against government spending cuts in Belgium.
The movement began on September 8 with a local rail strike in Charleroi, and spread spontaneously, though it is now being officially supported by the Socialist and Christian unions. The effects of the strike movement are increasing; steelworks in Liege have now been shut down.
Belgium's right wing coalition government says it may use troops as scabs if the strike continues.
The government wants to cut public spending by cutting wages and bonuses, paying wages a month in arrears rather than in advance, and demanding higher social security contributions. It says it will negotiate on the method of making the cuts, but not on the principle and not even on the amount.
The background to this move is Belgium's huge budget deficit - estimated at 11.5% of national income. (Britain's deficit, about which the Tories make such an outcry, is less than 3% of national income). Belgium also has a huge foreign debt, and 15% unemployment.
Before this strike wave, the labour movement response the issue of cuts had been weak. Belgium has two Socialist Parties - Flemish and Walloon -and the Flemish Socialist Party has supported cuts on the grounds that too much money is being spent in the Walloon (French-speaking) areas!
Now Socialist union leaders in Wallonia are calling for WORKERS IN West Germany, too, are adopting militant tactics to fight back against cuts.
On Monday 19th, 2000 workers at the AG Weser Groepelingen shipyard in Bremen occupied the yard after they had been addressed by the government Economics Minister, Count Otto Lambsdorff. The Christian Democrat/Christian Social Union government is backing plans to close the Groepelingen yard as part of a drastic restructuring of shipbuilding.
Already another shipyard in Hamburg is occupied by the workers in protest against plans to lay off 1354 of them.
The Social Democratic provincial government in Bremen has said it will consult experts before deciding whether to support or oppose the restructuring plan.