Privatisation victims fight back
More than 150,000 Danish workers went on strike April 20. It was part of a national day of action in solidarity with
82 bus drivers who have been striking since February 10 in Esbjerg, Denmark's fifth largest city. The bus drivers have defied aggressive bosses, local and national government, and daily police brutality in their fight against the effects of privatisation, including wage cuts. by Finn Kjeller
Public bus transportation in Denmark is one of the areas where private firms have been invited to submit bids to take over public services. They can use the fact that private and public bus companies are agreements. In Copenhagen and other cities, the bus drivers' unions have been able to limit the damage by obtaining complementary agreements, ensuring that their wage levels remain the same. But that is not what happened in Esbjerg, a seaport on the Southwest coast.
There the city council put a private company, Ri-Bus A/S, in charge of running the city buses. This was not the most economical proposal by any means, but it was a local company and, incidentally, owned by three notorious right wingers with links to scab unions. The new company, with strong backing from the employers' branch association, refused to negotiate even a temporary agreement with the workers. The old contract with the municipal authorities expired on April 1 this year. The Esbjerg drivers faced a reduction in wages of between 8.5 and 15.4% ($2,800 to $5,700). In addition, the bosses were putting the squeeze on other benefits and on working conditions: breaks, schedules, even toilet facilities.
The invitation to submit bids was originally approved by the Social Democrats, and the choice of Ri-Bus was made with the votes of the Socialist People's Party (SF). These reformist forces have come to regret their decision. Since 1993, the Liberal Party has controlled local goverment in the city of Esbjerg as well as in the surrounding region. Their policies have not been influenced by the protests of working people who are affected by them. On the contrary, Esbjerg represents a breakthrough for their offensive against trade union influence, designed to make privatisations as effective a weapon as possible in the effort to redistribute wealth and income in order to benefit private capital.
Already last summer the drivers were on strike, pushing for an agreement to maintain their wages. At the beginning of February this year it was clear to them that there would be no real negotiations-even though the drivers had offered to meet the bosses half-way, agreeing to a gradual reduction of wages. Following a near-unanimous (there was one dissent) decision by the drivers to go on strike against Ri-Bus, the intransigent position of the employers association soon hardened the conflict. Management proceeded to fire all of the strikers and advertise for new employees.
Picketing has been the central means of action throughout the strike. All of the drivers have taken part in blocking the garage area. Until the end of March the picket was effective. No city buses were running, and regional buses could not enter Esbjerg if they wanted to get out again. The bus drivers soon got the support of their colleagues in other cities and towns — plus, in some cases, from bus drivers' locals in Norway and Sweden which are experiencing the same process of privatisation. During the previous six months, warehouse workers and garbage collectors had been fired, but were successfully defended by trade union campaigns. When things started heating up in the bus drivers' dispute, solidarity grew until a large part of the Danish trade union movement was involved, defending its fundamental principles. Workers in Esbjerg had an old agreement never to accept police interference in a trade union struggle: "If the police intervene, we all stop working." This was put to the test on March 27 when the police first attacked a picket line which was more than 400 strong that day. The police, using dogs, were able to get out a few buses - which they then had to escort all over town. All major workplaces in Esbjerg immediately went on strike for one or two days.
This served as a signal for country-wide solidarity. Regional and national shop stewards conferences were called which prepared the national day of action on April 20, indicating to all that this might be a major mobilization. Street parliament
Danish labour market regulations penalize most strikes by fines. Nevertheless, almost 200,000 showed their sympathy for the Esbjerg bus drivers on April 20. For
Denmark many in the public sector this was also a warning strike against plans for privatization: home helpers, municipal employees, postal and phone workers, etc. Private sector workers, who were even more numerous among the strikers, also reacted to the anti-social logic of the privatization policies. Most of the shipyards, bacon factories, and the other larger city workplaces joined the movement. Bus transport was paralysed by strikes or pickets in every city, as well as parts of the ferries and air-lines.
The date chosen was also designed to show resistance to the right-wing opposition in parliament which had taken the initiative to begin a debate on the pace of privatization in Denmark. (It is too slow in their opinion.) While 5,000 demonstrated in front of Christiansborg, representatives of the Unity List/Red-Green Alliance defended the strikers and the solidarity movement - or, as they were called by the Conservatives and ultra-Liberals, the "troublemakers" and "the parliament of the street".
The Social Democratic leaders, who govern in alliance with two small Liberal parties, have been more or less unable to act. The fact is that while the right-wing governments of Poul Schilter were responsible for introducing neo-liberal concepts in the 1980's, few public companies or services were actually handed over to the private sector until 1993 when Poul Nyrup Rasmussen lead the Social Democratic come-back. Not only were the Social-Democrats able to persuade a majority to accept the Maastricht treaty in a second referendum, the "closet liberals" were also in a position to deliver more privatisation than the previous Conservative-Liberal government. One example is the selling off of 51% of the Giro Bank. The enterprises singled out for privatisation have come from those making a profit.
On the other hand, the local authorities have been encouraged to invite bids for other services, typically those employing women at low wages. The big service companies have been able to gain contracts by under-cutting established prices in the beginning, and raising them later. The policy of increasing competition between
11 International Viewpoint #267 June 1995
International Viewpoint #2667 June 1995
Trade unions - Denmark private and public services means that workers such as hospital cleaners have had to work faster either to keep their job with a new private employer or to keep the contract in public hands.
Seeing that the strike was challenging the results of its policies,
Europe's Trade Unions -- New radicalism? while at the same time attracting the
support of Social Democratic workers and party branches, the government seemed to hope that it would just go away. But this did not mean that it was neutral. While Minister of Justice Bjorn Westh took care of the police war against the pickets, Minister of Labour Jytte Andersen warned that bus drivers who spent their time picketing would get no more unemployment benefits — only the drivers never asked for such benefits since they have refused to recognize the legitimacy of the action the company took in sacking them! It is worth remembering that the police attacks take place under anti-picket regulations set down by a Social Democratic government in the late seventies.
However, Hardy Hansen MP, chairman of SiD - the federation of unskilled workers to which the Esbjerg bus drivers belong - has condemned Ri-Bus vigorously. At the same time he has tried to offer the bosses favorable arrangements, such as keeping the previously employed drivers at their original wages and letting new employees work at the lower rate. He was unsuccessful, as was the Prime Minister when he proposed himself as a mediator.
Contributions from unions all over the country have financed the strike. For the first two months the movement was largely run by local trade unions and rank and file activists. But the wave of workplace solidarity brought the SiD and the regional bodies of the trade union congress (LO) onto the scene as decisive financial and organizational supporters. Still, support committees in cities around the country were still led largely by trade union militants belonging to the far left.
After April 20, trade unions and support committees stepped up solidarity by sending coaches from Copenhagen and other areas on a daily basis. Ri-Bus has succeeded in employing some twenty scab drivers. Every morning, police attack the picket line, resulting in several casualties and arrests. Some 9 to 13 12 buses then run for part of the day followed by the workers and therefore under heavy police protection. Tensions rising
As new coach-loads of pickets arrive every day, thousands experience how the police place the city of Esbjerg in a virtual state of siege in order to discourage strike activists. Several hundred have been arrested. Not only are they chasing the flying pickets all over town, people are being arrested for just standing around or sitting on a bench. The strikers are under constant surveillance — including wire taps and being followed wherever they go. Threats have been made against scabs, but also against strike leaders. The strikers' spokesperson wound up in the hospital because of this pressure. But, as drivers' shop steward Karl Erik Pedersen said on TV, May 13, "the drivers are tired but not worn out." At the same time, the drivers are increasingly vulnerable to Social-
Social Democratic politicians and trade union leaders are eager to put the lid on all expressions of outright resistance to privatisation. Their aim is to limit the conflict to the local level and to focus only on the most blatant offences against workers' rights. So far, all attempt at compromise has hit a wall of refusal by the
The factors pushing toward an escalation of the conflict became clear when, on May 7, 400,000 kr. worth of bus windows were smashed during the night. 47 people were arrested and kept in police custody for three days on charges of malicious damage. The support committees dissociated themselves from the action. But, clearly, the drivers as well as their supporters are getting tired of being pushed around and bitten by dogs.
Plans have been made to maintain and develop broad working class support. A new day of action is set for June 1. This should be the occasion for waging a real mass blockade against the scab buses, involving groups not sufficiently present the last time. The SAP (Socialist Workers Party - Danish section of the Fourth International) puts forward the demand for LO to call a 24 hour general strike on the June 1, and for the SiD to launch secondary strikes and pickets against all firms delivering goods and services to the Ri-Bus bus company.
This strike may last for another month or more. Whatever the outcome, the bus drivers' struggle against wage cuts and privatisation has fuelled a solidarity movement the likes of which have not been seen for some time. It has revived left wing trade union networks and confirmed a trend towards a rise in the level of class struggle.
But only a victory over the Ri-Bus privatisation pirates can create a dynamic which will encourage other workers to take on the liberal diktats. * Contact: Copenhagen support committee: Fax +45 31 39 76 94. The Enhedslisten experience Enhedslisten ("The Unity List") was formed in 1989 on the initiative of the Left Socialists (VS), the Communist Party (DKP) and the Socialist Workers Party (SAP - Danish Section of the Fourth international). The Communist Workers Party (KAP) joined in 1991. Since then it has developed into an independent organisation with no special privileges for any affiliated party. Unlike similiar initiatives in other countries, Endedslisten has no distinct "Green" component. The Danish Green Party is a marginal party, to the right of most European Green Parties. Revolutionary left groups in a number of countries are considering the posibilities for regroupment with other left groups in some kind of wider organisation. As a contribution to this debate the Socialistisk Arbejderparti (Socialist Workers Party — Danish Section of the Fourth International) recently published an English translation of the "SAP and the Unity List" resolution voted at their extraordinary convention held in January 1995. The resolution also touches on the weekly newspaper Den rode Trad (The Red Thread), launched in 1991 as the result of a fusion of the weekly papers of the SAP, VS and KAP. Enhedslisten has had a distinct representation on the editorial board of the paper since 1994. Other English-language documents published by SAP include • A balance sheet of SAP party building (1980-85) • A Socialist Alternative to the Capitalist and Bourgeois EC (1989) Contact: Socialist Workers Party (SAP) Norre Alle 11A, Box 547 DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark Tel. 31 39 79 48 Fax 35 37 32 17 E-mail steenand@inet.uni-c.dk, sdn02457@sdn.dk