WORKERS aia =m WAGE BOOST |
- Cologne
After a.two-day session in the Rheinhartshausen castle on February: 16+17, representatives of the employers in the West German. metal industry came to agreement with, union leaders on a new con= tract that includes the Following gains: aan
® <A wage increase of 6% retroactive to January 1 (when the old contract ended).
@ Reduction of the work week from 41% hours to 40 hours, effective January 1, 1967 (instead of July 1 as called for in the old contract).
_@ A further wagé-increase of 5% effective January 1, 1967.
The new contract, which includes a total pay boost of 11%, is’: for 18 months. The previous contract was for 15 months and gained only a 9% wage increase. However, it included other important gains such as a special premium of 30% of monthly wages for annual vacations (in addition to the regular wage paid during the vacation per?-” od). Besides this, paid vacations were extended to four weeks for all workers-and employees over thirty.
The Rheinhartshausen compromise came after a tug-of-war in which the employers threatened a general lockout in those provinces where. the union engaged in strike action. This threat was unconstitutional, at least in one of the areas involved (the province of Hessen). In addition,-.in some regions ,. the employers rejected a pro-— posed agreement drawn up. by a commission of mediators. Thus public opinion. favored the union, as did. the press. .with.the exception of newspapers directly controlled by the employers which engaged in their usual union-baiting.
Negotiators for the union were strengthened by a decision to stage warning strikes lasting from thirty minutes to an hour, mostly in the form of sit-down strikes. The decision was made by rank-andfile union leaders in the plants in the areas where the employers had not accepted the agreement proposed by the mediators. Some 60,000 workers engaged in these warning strikes which were especially effective in the Mannheim and Frankfurt areas where the Daimler-Benz . auto plants are located.
The workers | ‘further showed their readiness to fight by ‘sending telegrams to the union negotiators at Rheinhartshausen castle... urging them to stand firm. This mood was especially apparent in the’ Badén-Wirtemberg region where the workers went out on strike in 196 for a new contract. In Hessen, where no strike action has been sae
Since 1951,.the atmosphere was quieter.
Although gains were made, they were much more modest than they need have been. In return for a 1% increase over that proposed by the mediating commission, the union agreed to postpone reduction of the work week for an additional 6ix months. Yet the West German metal workers union --~ the biggest trade union in the world == has more than 2,000,000 members and a tremendous strike fund.
The timidity of the union leaders stems from the pressure of the Social-Democratic party leadership which doés not want any "trouble" that could possibly lead to reprisals at the ballot box.
The slowly rising militancy of some sectors of the West German
labor movement was also shown by a demonstration of 15,000 miners at Gelsenkirchen February 21. The demonstration was organized as a protest against the projected closing of the Bismarck coal mine. near that city..
THE. JAIPUR SESSTON OF THE CONGRESS PARTY
_ By Kailas Chandra
. ‘Bombay » /. In his presidential address to the seventieth session of the Indian National Congress, which concluded on February 13 at Jaipur, Congress President Kamaraj candidly confessed that "although eleven years had elapsed since the ruling party accepted socialism as its goal, the development programme of the Government had not succeeded in lessening, let alone removing, the disparity between the rich and the poor." Although he blew off hot air as is customary at such Congress gatherings, even ‘declaring that "the economic challenge far outweighs the immediate military threat," he did not indicate how the Congress proposed "to fight its way. and overcome all the obstacles" he cited. Co
In the speeches made by the various delegates, there was indeed "a mood of angry impatience at the persistent shortcomings, frank self-analysis, an agonising reappraisal of inadequacies to implement the so-called Bhubaneshwar resolutions on democracy and socialism." (Free Press’ Journal, February 14.) There was an apparent "revival of the spirit of determination to pursue" the oft-repeated objectives which the "left. Congress" weekly Link (February 20). termed an attempt "to return to the Bhubaneshwar road. ad." This demagogy was obviously prompted by the coming general elections in the country barely twelve months away. From the vast sea of platitudes which swept over the deliberations at Jaipur nothing concrete emerged but "a few precious nuggets of resolutions indicating promises of earnest action to revive and. revitalise the country's economy.
Even Link was skeptical about the implementation of the highsounding resolutions. "All that Jaipur proved," it said, "was that the trend of radical thinking among Congressmen had survived the attempt to beat 2 total retreat from Bhubaneshwar made during the last. two years.
The weekly } New New Age of the rightist Communist