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1 June, 2003Hundreds of thousands of trade union members expected to strike over government attempts to increase retirement age.
AUSTRIA: The IMF's Austrian affiliate, Gewerkschaft Metall-Textil (GMT), will join the national trade union confederation ÖGB in a 24 hours "massive defense strike" on Tuesday, June 3d.
The strike follows earlier country-wide protests and strikes over government plans to increase the national retirement age. The strike is scheduled to take place from 0.00-24.00 hours with work stoppages focussing on the public transport and in the private industry sector.
Although the trade unions and their social partners had tried to defer changes in the proposed legislation so that a solution of mutual consent might have been found, the government rejected any delay and introduced a draft law to Parliament on April 29.
If passed, the legislation will prolong by five years the period for pension contributions -- from 40 to 45 years. The president of the Austrian metalworkers' union, Rudolf Nürnberger, says "the government draft means extensive cuts in future pensions of up to minus 41 per cent."