Austria could see general strike

Austria could see a general strike over the right-wing government's exclusion of unions from decisions about the welfare state.

Unions are prepared to use "the whole range of instruments from negotiations to general strike" in their struggle to protect social standards, provided the members back them in a national ballot, according to Fritz Neugebauer, vice president of the (tm)GB union confederation.

The unions plan a national ballot of members in an attempt to mobilise their members around their policy of protecting Austria's welfare state which involves substantial trade union influence (see Labour Research September 2001, page 10). The final question asks whether the unions should "take industrial action" to pursue their demands "for the future of our country". The result of the ballot will be announced later this month.

However, the unions' campaign has to some extent been derailed by a scandal about the salaries of top trade union officials, which led to the resignation of the leader of the post and telecommunications union. Subsequently the key union figures published details of their own pay. The highest paid is Fritz Verzetnitsch, president of the (tm)GB, who earns around £103,700, half for his union job and half as a member of parliament.