A wave of strikes swept across Europe in support of a simple demand: raise wages! Galloping inflation, delays in contract renewals, public budgetary policies have weighed on an already difficult social situation, after the two-year period of the pandemic.
The protests have even been justified by the European Central Bank, which continues to raise interest rates, because it recognizes that inflation has risen too much and has eroded the purchasing power of wages. More: the ECB expects sustained growth in wages in the euro area by 2023 as a result of strong trade union demands and widespread social struggles.
In reality, we have seen all these tensions in Germany, in France, in post-Brexit England, while in Italy the seriousness of the wage situation has not yet been matched by a decisive union or political response, as if whoever was responsible for reacting were hit from crippling aphasia.
Unions and Pd are shy, too polite, dominated by bon ton, but a strike, a season of protests in the area, even overcoming the simulacrum of trade union unity at all costs, would be the obligatory response.
In Germany, the coordinated strike of civil servants and railway workers has blocked the country and also shaken wages. Following the platforms of their chemist and metalworker colleagues, public sector workers got an “inflation bonus” of €3,000 and a minimum wage increase of €340. The railway workers are still in the fight and do not give up on their demand for a 12% increase, around 650 euros of base.
This proliferation of disputes should be evaluated not only as a reaction to the jump in the cost of living, but also with the progressive shortage of manpower in industrial sectors and in services.
In Germany the protest was interpreted by the newspaper Handelsblatt as a turning point: “The workers have understood that the workforce has become a scarce commodity.” And so they want to be paid more and live better. For this reason IgMetall, the union of metal workers, is proposing the reduction of working hours to 32 hours a week over four days.
Protests in France against raising the retirement age are linked to income issues and labor shortage pressures. In England, the health system is in a deep crisis due to the shortage of doctors and nurses, with terrible budget cuts.
Then there’s us. In Italy, wage fraud against workers has dominated for about thirty years. As a premise, it must be remembered that between 1990 and 2020 the wages of Italian workers fell by 2.9%, while in France and Germany they grew by over 30%.
The incomes policy of 1993, a myth for the confederations that some would like to revive, has resolved over time with a compression of wages and an explosion in the profits of companies, which have been able to restructure at will and exploit low wages as a competitive factor . With many greetings to innovation and the “high” development model.
The ten-year gap between our pay slips and those of European countries is getting worse not only with the flare-up of inflation but also with the non-renewal of collective agreements. Nearly 7 million out of 12.8 million private sector workers are waiting for contracts and facing inadequate wages.
In 2022 wages rose by 1%, prices eight times as much. What do we want to talk about?
Low wages are an emergency recognized by all, but when it comes to action, the crux to change is never found. The Meloni government, in the wake of others, has decided to cut the tax wedge for employees up to 25,000 euros and 35,000 euros. A signal. But it is a tip, not a salary and social change for millions of workers to whom the government and companies will not give anything.
#Starvation #wages #30year #scam