Abdullah Abu Deif (Cairo)
The Transport Workers Union of Finland announced yesterday that it had reached a wage agreement that would end the two-week strike of dock workers in Finland, which had a major impact on the country’s foreign trade. Bloomberg News reported that nearly 1,800 longshoremen won pay increases of 6.3% for just over two years, and 1,100 euros per year, according to a statement from the Finnish Transport Workers’ Union.
Experts believe that labor unions are the main driver of the recent demonstrations and strikes, which are of an economic nature in European countries due to the recent deterioration of conditions, while they revolve mainly around political issues.
In this context, Jihan Jado, a local council member in the French city of Versailles, said: The role of trade unions is major in the current protests and strikes on the European continent, especially in France, where people suffer from some policies on the part of the government, where for the first time federal and labor unions meet with young people who They went out in millions of demonstrations.
She added, in statements to Al-Ittihad, that the demonstrations take a purely economic form, while it is political in depth. For example, in France, the government’s policy on the issue of pensions and raising the age and insisting on passing the law despite its rejection by the majority of the people’s forces, but it is continuing with its powers in approving the law. .
In a related context, Mahmoud Al-Sayed, a researcher on European affairs, said: The global oil crisis caused a societal crisis, hence the growing role of labor unions in particular, which have long been known to be on the left of power.
He added in statements to Al-Ittihad that the Ukrainian crisis left a global oil crisis in addition to an exaggerated rise in fuel prices, which made most sectors, especially restaurant and bakery owners, join these strikes due to the shortage of commodities and the rise in fuel, which greatly affected its production.
Al-Sayed indicated that the demonstrators primarily object to the poverty of the solutions provided by governments and the economic budgets, and their sufficiency in giving palliatives from the few aids to help confront the high prices, and they did not rise to a comprehensive reform to overcome this economic crisis, in addition to the increase in unemployment rates during recent months clearly, which is common in Europe.
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