The socialist trade union ABVV and the Christian trade union ACV are set to take action against the federal government’s austerity measures on 9 October. The ABVV refers to it as a demonstration; the ACV calls it a day of action. This will mark the fourth national demonstration in the space of a year.
“For 19 months now, the De Wever I government has been chipping away at the pillars of our social model: pensions, wages, working conditions and working hours, protection in the event of illness, unemployment insurance, social security and public services,” says the ABVV. “In the process, social dialogue has repeatedly been presented with a fait accompli, undermined or simply ignored.”
According to the ABVV, the strongest shoulders should bear the heaviest burdens, which, the trade union argues, is not currently the case. “Other choices are possible. This requires political courage,” it adds.
The ABVV expects the De Wever government to adjust its policies: no further erosion of the wage and benefit indexation mechanism, no VAT increase and no annualisation of working hours, whereby the average working hours are calculated over a whole year rather than per week.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that government measures are causing great hardship for many people and are doing nothing to shore up the budget,” says the ACV. The Christian trade union does not yet want to speak explicitly of a “national demonstration” but refers to a “National Day of Action”.
If the government stands its ground, the ABVV is threatening a national strike in the week of 23 November. The ACV has not yet put it quite so bluntly.
The demo will be the fourth national demonstration in the space of a year. According to the police, 80,000 people took part in last October’s demonstration, 80,000 in March this year, and 40,000 in May. The independent trade union Synova will decide next week whether to join next month’s action.