Why the teachers are on strike Janne AKERLUND REYKJAVIK-"The background to our strike is that people's buying power has been cut by at least 30 percent over the last year and a half!"
That was what Hanna Kristin Stefansdottir said. She has been a teacher for fifteen years and is the editor of the teachers' paper in Iceland. She is also one of the leaders of the public workers' union, the BSRB (Bandalag Starfsmanna Rikis og Baeja, the Association of National and Local Government Workers), which has been on strike since October 4.
"A lot of people in other countries might think that our demand for a 30 percent wage increase seems too high. But we have seen our living standard drop very quickly. Most people here have to do extra work in order to make ends
"Some people have been talking about reprivatization, the minister of among others. But, so far, there are no concrete plans for this. The public sector has been subjected to very severe austerity, and it is obvious that many of these measures could lead to demands arising for private schools, day-care centers and hospitals.
"In September, for example, all instruction in the school libraries was stopped in order to hold costs down. Medicine and medical care are a lot more expensive today. Before we paid about as much as you do in Sweden, but today we are paying twice as much."
The government's answer to the conflict so far has been to talk about lower taxes instead of higher wages.
the right has the resources to continue its propaganda.
"It is the right that has kept two pirate radio stations on the air for the past two weeks. To combat that, we have only leaflets."
It was on October 11 that these pirate radio broadcasts were stopped. Previous attempts to halt the right's propaganda broadcasts were blocked by ministers who were involved in this propaganda activity. The right wing paper, DV, which supports one of the government parties, had sponsored one station for ex-
At the time of writing, the situation was quiet. The shutdowns were continuing and all the workplaces were waiting to see what would happen. I asked Hanna Kristin Stefansdottir what she expected.
"The strike is becoming long and drawn out. For nearly two months now the unions have tried in vain to get an offer from the government. This silence on the part of the authorities also reflects
On the picket line at the docks meet.
"There is a danger now of a mass
The public workers' strike has run up against a series of strike-breaking operaexodus from the public sector since you
This has involved not just the right setting up an illegal radio station but also can earn a lot more in the private one.
"I myself was offered a job as a sec-
That is why there were a couple of hundred strike pickets stationed in Reykretary for a lawyer that would have paid me two and a half times what my
I met one of them down at the harbor where the customs officials are on strike present one does.
discharging of cargo without any problems. But a couple of days later, there were
"The private sector, which is quite buoyant right now, is luring away a lot reports of a battle on the docks when another vessel was being unloaded of workers from public employment. In
"The strike is the last step you take, but now we have to do it because econ-
" said Einar Oskarson.
the public sector, the situation is very
But today he is doing picket duty for the public work-
In the summer for the first time a bad.
lot of wards were closed at the hospital.
"We have to work thirty to forty hours extra a week to make ends meet. A lot
"But not everyone in the private sec-
And for what? Look at the prices and com comparison with tor is highly paid by
I've been in Sweden myself, and I earn less than Swedish workers in the same
Stafansdottir conus,"
Hanna Kristin job. But here in Iceland, milk costs more than twice as much, "
"Do you think you are going to win the strike?"
tinued.
We may get a raise of 10% to 15%, because these are hard
"Workers in the fishing industry,
The fishing industry is doing poorly, and we always get the worst of it when especially women, are as badly paid the economy is doing badly. But the strike is so strong and we are so united that
They are trying to raise their standard of we are going to get a better contract than the one we renounced."
living by working overtime, and they also
Here on the docks, the pickets had been able to stop strikebreaking without a have a piece-work system that makes it ruckus, since there was strong solidarity among the harbor workers. I wondered possible for them to earn a bit more."
what sort of support the strikers had gotten from other unions.
"Has the question of pri-
I asked:
vatization of the public sector been discussed by the government and the bosses?
That's what's happening in other parts of
Europe."
tions.
more direct actions.
javik to stop such attempts.
but where a ship was being unloaded.
omic conditions are so bad for us, post and telegraph service.
ers down here in the harbor.
of us work two jobs instead of one.
pare.
I asked:
Einar responded:
times.
"We have got very good backing,
This time the pickets were able to stop the
He works in the Icelandic
J.A.
International Viewpoint 12 November 1984
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24
big conflicts within the government. The most conservative forces are ready to pass a law against the strike and call new elec-
But when the finance minister stopped the paychecks for public workers in October, the premier was furious. that they are not talking to each other any more than the government is talking
"We have very strong support for our struggle. Out of the country's 800 teachers, 400 come here every day to work for our union in the strike.
"The same is true for other unions of public workers.
"We have got statements of support from other unions in Iceland that are still in negotiations. We have also got statements of support and economic contributions from public workers in other Scandinavian countries. Our strike fund is quite empty and needs contributions from outside. It's empty because we got the right to strike for the first time in 1975 and so we have had only ten years to build it up."
"Do you have any message for Internationalen [Fourth International paper] and public workers in Sweden?"
"Yes, be on your guard about the public sector. All talk about reprivatization is dangerous. Public workers in Scandinavia have to defend the public sector. Sick-pay funds, education, health and medical insurance benefit everyone. And for such a tiny country as Iceland that is
"It is also very important to get out information about our demands, about how our buying power has been cut, and how high the cost of living has gone in Iceland, because the conflict can widen very quickly. We are hoping for a positive proposal from the government next but the strike can escalate very
"For our part, we are preparing for a resignation en masse. We have asked teachers to sign up on a list that they are ready to resign immediately, and some 80 percent have done so. They pledge also not to take another teaching job in Iceland until everyone is reinstated.
"This form of struggle was used by the doctors three or four years ago, and we will see if we have to carry out this threat in fact. But the comment on this demand from the other side is not en-
The finance minister has 'It's all the same to us, let them twiddle their thumbs at home?
"We are going to go on fighting, because what is at stake is the future of our people and a decent life in Iceland."
negotiating while we public workers are on strike is getting under a lot of people's skin. Dockers come up to us and tell us that they are ashamed that their union is negotiating while we are out on strike.
"That is the most dangerous thing in the confliet. The bosses are exploiting the workers movement's weakness and trying to split us.
"The main question for us today is the question of bargaining rights. This question is also going to have to be discussed
National Labor Confederation congress in We have to have the right to win our own contract and not have to depend on what the National Confederation gets in nego-
Despite the fatigue after many weeks on strike, he spoke fluently and ener-
We were constantly being interrupted by telephone calls. But Magnus Einar Sigurdsson always started again right where he left off.
"We have got support from the other unions in the strike, but there has been no adequate discussion about future coordination and solidarity. faced strike breaking, although not on the same scale as the public workers. Our relations with the public workers are getting closer, and we help them put out their strike paper. The more time passes, the stronger the coordination is between us.
The conflict on the Icelandic labor market today is more over the general conditions for the labor movement in