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4 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 14/2000
The new Austrian government's policies were sharply criticised yesterday by the country's mining, metal and energy union the GMBE. In the same statement, the union condemned the climate of intolerance created by one of the coalition partners, Joerg Haider's extreme right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPOe).
The government's programme will, the GMBE says, place "massive, unilateral burdens on workers, and particularly on women workers, but also on young people, the unemployed, the sick and the pensioners." It particularly criticises plans to raise the legal pension age and cut the incomes of those who retire earlier. And, as the union points out, the government intends to scrap previously successful employment programmes in order to finance big hand-outs to companies and farmers. The government programme also fails to bring in "reforms that are important for the workers - notably the protection of workers within a globalised economy and real improvements in training and retraining."
On the FPOe's role in the new government, the GMBE says "the concerns of the European Union and other states are quite understandable". In particular, the union cites Haider's praise for what he called the "proper employment policies of the Third Reich" and his description of former SS officers as "decent people". [For more on Haider's sayings, the union recommends the Austrian Haiderwatch website - available in both German and English].
But, the GMBE insists, "we reject any blanket condemnation of the Austrians as a 'Nazi people'. After all, more than 70 percent of the electors did not vote for the FPOe." The union warns that boycotts of Austrian goods, services and tourism would "hit the wrong people, namely the workers."
The FPOe has repeatedly "stirred up fear, intolerance and xenophobia," the GMBE says. It accuses the party of "playing different parts of the population off against each other."
The GMBE "judges any government - of whatever party - on the basis of what it does for the workers in this country. We will act massively against the measures of the new federal government, which are worsening the situation of working, unemployed and retired people in Austria. At the same time, we oppose the brutalisation of Austria's political culture."
At the global level, the GMBE is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).
The government's programme will, the GMBE says, place "massive, unilateral burdens on workers, and particularly on women workers, but also on young people, the unemployed, the sick and the pensioners." It particularly criticises plans to raise the legal pension age and cut the incomes of those who retire earlier. And, as the union points out, the government intends to scrap previously successful employment programmes in order to finance big hand-outs to companies and farmers. The government programme also fails to bring in "reforms that are important for the workers - notably the protection of workers within a globalised economy and real improvements in training and retraining."
On the FPOe's role in the new government, the GMBE says "the concerns of the European Union and other states are quite understandable". In particular, the union cites Haider's praise for what he called the "proper employment policies of the Third Reich" and his description of former SS officers as "decent people". [For more on Haider's sayings, the union recommends the Austrian Haiderwatch website - available in both German and English].
But, the GMBE insists, "we reject any blanket condemnation of the Austrians as a 'Nazi people'. After all, more than 70 percent of the electors did not vote for the FPOe." The union warns that boycotts of Austrian goods, services and tourism would "hit the wrong people, namely the workers."
The FPOe has repeatedly "stirred up fear, intolerance and xenophobia," the GMBE says. It accuses the party of "playing different parts of the population off against each other."
The GMBE "judges any government - of whatever party - on the basis of what it does for the workers in this country. We will act massively against the measures of the new federal government, which are worsening the situation of working, unemployed and retired people in Austria. At the same time, we oppose the brutalisation of Austria's political culture."
At the global level, the GMBE is affiliated to the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM).