STRIKES TESTIFY TO RESTIVENESS OF BELGIAN WORKERS
BRUSSELS -- Two small groups of workers recently paralyzed wide sectors of the Belgian economy. At the beginning of January, some 800 employees of the locks system in Antwerp halted practically all shipping in Europe's second biggest port. Hundreds of ships lay idle while many others had to be detoured to other ports.
One week later, some 5,500 workers in the oil refineries and
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distribution system went out on strike. While key technicians were able to keep the largely automated refineries functioning, the gasoline [petrol] and oil delivery system choked off, making things difficult for power plants, many factories and a. good deal of motor vehicle traffic. . :
In both strikes, groups of generally better paid workers were in:action. The oil refinery workers are probably the highest paid sector of the working class in Belgium (their average monthly pay being around $280 or £100), It should also be noted that they had already won a sliding scale of wages, automatically bringing them a wage boost of 2.5% each time the cost of living rises 2.5%.
The rise in the cost of living, indicated by the provisions of this sliding scale, says much about the reason for the restiveness of the Belgian workers but does not completely explain these particular strikes.
The fact is that for several. years ‘the government and the employers have sought to prevent the Belgian workers from gaining improvements in their standard of living to which they feel they are entitled in view of the improved economic conditions and nearly full employment, The government and the employers have imposed legal limitations on wage increases for the public sector. and have sought to extend contracts to the advantage of the employers, This so-called "social programing™ has become increasingly irritating to the workers and has touched off several rounds of action. The strikes with which 1965 opened are typical examples
The ‘government came down with a heavy hand on the strikers, The Antwerp harbor workers were requisitioned. The oil workers were threatened with similar action.
Since a coalition government is in power in which the Sociale ist party is one of the partners, this led to increased tension between the more militant sectors of the trade unions and the rightwing leadership of this social~democratic organization,
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