problems. The Netherlands has the highest percentage of part-time workers
(with part-time wages) in the industrialised world. Women in particular are forced into this under-employment trap
The lack of enthusiasm for a shorter working week is directly linked to the weak position of unions in the workplaces, and the non-combative policies of union leaderships.
Positive results from other countries, showing how a shorter working week unemployment, because so few new was to humanise working conditions, then the changes could be negotiated and introduced gradually. But if the aim was to save jobs and create new ones, then it would be necessary to implement significant reductions, more quickly.
jobs have been created by previous reductions in labour time.
can succesfully be fought for, can help this.
- Until then new to change
33
* The 35 hour week in Europe
In 1981, the leadership of the IG Metall union had decided to push not for a 35-hour week, but to reduce the retirement age to 58. This shift was in response to government overtures: rather than refusing any discussion of reducing labour time, the government tried to involve the unions in evaluating a range of measures: part-time work, job-sharing, introduction of temporary job agencies, fixed-term contracts, etc.
This changed in 1982, when the Liberals left the government coalition. At the end of that year, the IG Metall union declared that it was "ready and determined to continue, in the coming year, to fight for the reduction of unemployment, and considers the reduction in the working week to be a top priority." Wide mobilisation - on different demands
That year, the union mobilised considerably around this demand. It argued that the 35-hour week would make it possible to create 1.6 million new jobs, whereas a reduction in the retirement age to 55 would only create 1.0 million.
The IG Metall union was gradually joined by other unions (typographers, postal workers, teachers and scientific workers, woodworking and gardening unions). The other branches (chemical workers, building trades, miners, textile workers, and unions in the food-processing industry) argued for a reduction in the retirement age to 58. There was a clear split between the unions.
This made it increasingly difficult to mobilise for the strike. Unemployment was high, and the employers' was almost a declaration of war. The government explicitly supported management.
To make matters worse, workers doubted the seriousness of the IG Metall union's proposals, and suspected that the leadership would be willing to accept a bad compromise, particularly over the issue of flexibility.
Nevertheless, once it became clear that the employers had made maintaining a 40hour week an absolute principle, and that the right-wing government was determined to inflict a major defeat on the workers, labour closed ranks behind their unions (although the latter did not coordinate their struggles.)
The employers proposed flexible management of labour time, disguised behind the ridiculous "principle" "sovereignty" of each individual's working time. " They also offered a wage increase, and the possibility of early retirement at 59.
All the sectors of IG Metall demanded the introduction of the 35- hour week, without loss of pay, and that overtime be paid for in free time, not in extra wages.
A strong social mobilisation took place on both sides. The strikers enjoyed the solidarity of other unions, of citizens' committees, and cultural initiatives, while the employers were supported by a mobilisation against the 35-hour week in the uni34 International Viewpoint #297 versities and the media. A protest march of employers in Düsseldorf was held Scabs used violence against the striking printing workers. And the metal workers faced a strong social challenge, profoundly political, before they even Workers' mobilisations
The first warning strikes began in mid-March, involving 12,000 workers. By mid-June 63,000 workers were on strike. About 90,000 more were locked out, and a quarter of a million workers were sent home because their factories were allegedly without work for them to do. This occurred all over West Germany, though the strike itself was confined to Baden Würtenberg and Hessen. Workers responded to management intimidation with initiatives ("Let's visit our factories") that verged on occupations.
The climate shifted against the employers and the government. On 28 May the trade unions organised a march in the capital, Bonn, in which 230,000 demonstrators participated, demanding the 35hour week, and "early retirement for [Chancellor] Kohl!" Then the courts overturned the state's decision not to pay compensation to workers affected by the lock-outs. By June, some employers were beginning to argue in favour of the compromise brokered by the IG Metall union.
At the end of that month, a deal was signed. The working week would be cut from 40 to 38.5 hours, within four months for steel workers, and 10 months for the rest. This was not an agreement on individual working hours, but on average hours within a given workplace, over any two month period. No "sovereignty" for the individual worker here!
The agreement stressed that the requirements of the enterprise were paramount Although the employers had been forced to go below their 40-hour "minimum," they had succeeded in imposing, once again, the subordination of the worker to the machine. The agreement specified that the cut in labour time could not reduce the amount of time machinery
For most workers, the reduction in labour time came as occasional half or full days of rest, awarded by the employer whenever there was little work to do. Individual working patterns began to diverge, even within the same enterprise.
New contracts no longer specified working hours, but delegated this task to the Enterprise Council, a legally recogbody with responsibilities, made up of management and worker representatives (though not necessarily from the trade unions). Most of the time, these Councils promote the interest of "their" enterprise, rather than an independent, pro-worker viewpoint. IG Metall union and the 35 hour week
As in 1978, the trade union left argued against signing this agreement. But this time, only 30% of voters joined them, compared to 40% in 1978.
An agreement on the introduction of the 35-hour week (within 10 years) was finally signed in 1986. Each step of the reduction was re-negotiated, and strenuously opposed, by the emplovers. The final stage, from 37 to 35 hours, was in
According to the IG Metall union's calculations, this initiative has saved, or created, about one million jobs. Even if this is true, unemployment has risen, in the same period, from 2.5 to 4.5 million.
Worse still, the way the 35-hour week has been introduced has opened the door to an unprecedented flexibilisation of labour. The average week is shorter, but it is now calculated as an average over longer and longer periods, three, six, sometimes 12 months. This means that overtime is still worked, but not paid at an overtime rate. Instead the worker receives the same amount of time off during a slack period; he or she does not chose.
This kind of reduction of hours has increased the intensity of work. And the new basic salary does not compensate fully for the hours "lost." Not surprisingly, there is widespread scepticism about any further reduction to 32 or 30 hours. The November 1996 IG Metall union congress rejected a motion calling for a 32-hour week without loss of salary (though union president Klaus Zwickel later adopted the proposal as his own.) Instead, the union adopted a pro-employer "pact for work," which has been a total failure.
For the moment, the IG Metall union has no "line" on reducing unemployment. Zwickel keeps talking about the 32-hour week, but in Baden-Würtenberg, the IG Metall union recently signed an agreement on part-time work for those aged 55 and over, which specifies that the 35-hour week will be maintained at least until the
Zwickel's deputy, Walter Riester, thinks this is far too inflexible. He proposes a contract system where collective bargaining would effectively be eliminated, since negotiations between unions and employers framework agreement. Enterprise-level negotiation of the details would encourage competition between workers in different
The lesson of the 1980s struggle for the 35-hour week is that it is possible to win with an aggressive strategy, the logic of which goes beyond the profit-driven economy. The IG Metall union could have won the 35-hour week in 1978 and in 1984. But only by uniting the unions, and spreading the struggle across most regions of the country.
Reducing labour time remains a central goal for those who want to defend both workers and the unemployed, introduce a new division of labour between men and women, and unite the working class. And to move out of this defensive situation, back onto the offensive! *