2023-05-01 12:38:37
“There are no progressive parties without strong unions and there are no strong unions without the freedom to strike. Today, the situation is very serious“, as the attacks on the right to strike have multiplied, particularly in the context of the dispute at Delhaize, “ua company that restructures to maximize its profits and knowingly circumvents the Renault law“, asserted Thierry Bodson, the president of the FGTB, during his speech on May 1 in the buildings of the CGSP in Namur.
“There is also no democracy without counter-power. We are the counter-power. You must legislate to defend the right to strike, even if it is difficult one year before the elections, because the strike is not always nice“, he continued to address the representatives of the PS present in the room, including the Federal Minister of Employment, Pierre-Yves Dermagne and the President of the Chamber, Eliane Tillieux.
“The May 22 demonstration in Brussels – announced at the end of last week by the union common front – aims to denounce social dumping at Delhaize but also to remind us that we live in a country where freedom of association is greatly threatened.“, added Thierry Bodson.
In his line of sight, among other things, the attitude of justice “which sends us unilateral requests to break up the picket lines, which speaks of a “disproportionate attack” on labor rights and which ultimately believes that employers’ rights are superior to social rights, with striking workers now qualified of activists“. “Without resistance, it will never stop!“, he asserted.
Advocacy once morest the Wage Standard Act 1996
Another pet peeve of the union: the MR “dhave the objective is to stifle the unions and the mutuals“. “It is a conservative party, enemy of the middle class, strong with the weak and weak with the strong. He wants to hit the unions at all costs when no one has a salary or a pension of 9600 euros per month. Populism within these liberal parties – which are hitting the unemployed when there have never been so few in Belgium – is a great danger for democracy.“, further estimated the president of the FGTB.
The latter also once more pleaded for a modification of the 1996 law which sets the wage standard and therefore limits increases during collective negotiations. “I tell you in all friendship: you – socialists, editor’s note – can no longer agree to enter a government that refuses to review this law of monstrous hypocrisy. For us, it would be a casus belli from the first hour“, at-il have you.”Struggles are going on everywhere. We have to be more offensive and radical. We must have uninhibited demands and we must win the battle for salaries, allowances – the two are not opposed – and taxation, an essential tool for democracy. Because without taxation, no strong public services while it is the State which is always called to the rescue. So let’s finance the state“, concluded Thierry Bodson
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