Protests over the cost of living continue to rise in Europe

Faced with the rising cost of living in European countries, more and more protests are being organized with demands such as wage increases, better working and retirement conditions, and easier access to public services.

Protests and various celebrations take place in many parts of Europe on May 1, Labor and Solidarity Day.

In recent years, European countries have attracted attention with the increase in this type of social movements.

In this sense, Brussels, the capital of the European Union (EU), has long welcomed the actions of thousands of citizens from many member countries.

Tens of thousands of people from all over Europe took to the streets of Brussels the epidemic measures of Covid-19, the heavy workload of health workers and protests against climate change.

More recently, the focus of the European protests has shifted to the countries’ own capitals, with demands for higher wages and better living conditions given the rising cost of living.

That is why Brussels is witnessing protests by employees from many sectors, from education to security, in Belgium.

Teachers, police, firefighters, train and airline workers frequently resorted to strikes and protests to improve wages, working and retirement conditions in Belgium.

FRANCE

One of the first countries that come to mind in Europe when considering protests is France.

There are 8 main union organizations representing workers in France.

Gregory Leduc, Federal Secretary of Health Services of the FO-Sante Union, evaluated the important actions in the country and their reasons.

Pointing out that the culture of protest has been rooted in the French throughout history, especially since the French Revolution in 1789, Leduc drew attention to the fact that many laws have been changed in the country in recent years such as result of citizen protests.

Leduc said that despite the government’s desire to harmonize the pension system of civil servants with the private sector in 1995, this practice was delayed after the French took to the streets many times, and high school and university students and unions took to the streets in 2006. He said that the law passed by parliament has not entered into force.

Noting that demonstrations have increased since French President Emmanuel Macron took office, Leduc referred to the gilets jaunes movement that began in 2018.

Leduc affirmed that there were more than 3 million participants in the protests against the pension reform, which increased the retirement age to 64 years, and that this number of people had not taken to the streets since 1995.

The French trade unionist pointed out that among the main demands of the protests in the country was a salary increase and easier access to public services.

GERMANY

Due to unusually high inflation in Germany and demands for higher wages and better working conditions to balance the rising cost of living for workers, it should be noted that many workers in many sectors have gone on strike several times this year in the call of the unions.

Although an agreement was reached between unions and employers after the work stoppages in some sectors of the country, it is expected that the strikes will continue due to the lack of agreement on collective agreements in some other branches.

The United Service Industry Union (Verdi), one of the largest unions in Germany, called on its members working at the German Post Office (Deutsche Post and DHL) to issue a warning on January 19 and 20 and on January 6 and February 7th. The Verdi union, which has pressured employers with warning strikes, won an average wage increase of 11.5 percent for 160,000 employees on March 11 as a result of collective bargaining.

Since the beginning of 2023, employees of various branches at the country’s airports have gone on strike numerous times.

Following the ground staff strike at the Berlin-Brandenburg airport on January 25, which led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights, the Verdi union agreed with employers on February 7 to increase wages by between 12% and 19.5% for employees.

Verdi’s president, Frank Werneke, pointing out the strikes carried out in the country in recent months, said: “For example, the participation of so many employees in the public sector, postal company, nurseries, social institutions, energy companies, airports , local transport companies and the maintenance sector shows that we are right in our demands.” saying.

Werneke emphasized that after the 3 years of the Covid-19 epidemic and especially the increase in inflation triggered by Russia’s war against Ukraine, employees demanded recognition for their work during the crisis and demanded serious salary increases:

“Companies must also help overcome the crisis by not rejecting demands for more money and better working conditions. Where they didn’t realize or completely rejected collective bargaining, we increased the pressure, in part, with mass strikes, and thus we were able to make very good collective agreements. Collective negotiations are still ongoing elsewhere and more strikes are expected.”

ENGLAND

In the UK, which is facing the highest rate of inflation in 41 years and the highest food inflation in 45 years, there has been a surge in protests in the second half of last year, where led to strikes and demands for raises. been expressed.

The main demand of employees in many sectors protesting the government’s proposals for wages, personal rights and working conditions is that the proposed increase be higher than inflation, which exceeds 10 percent.

Especially since the beginning of the year, many sectors have been expressing their demands by resorting to massive strikes and work stoppages. In February and March, while the biggest work stoppages the UK has seen in recent years took place, there are important occupational groups for the country, such as ambulance driver, doctor, nurse, train mechanic.

In the country, where there is great chaos in transport, since railway workers stopped working for 4 days in the last two months, the nurses union, which decided to go on strike on May 2, was sued by Health Minister Steve Barclay. alleging that he had been on strike for 6 months.

While the strikes by nurses, which numbered 300,000, and by general practitioners, which numbered 70,000, raised concerns about disruption to health services, the strike by passport office workers, whose numbers were expressed in just 1000, it caused many trips to be interrupted

GREECE

Greece faced the problem of rising cost of living in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak and the Ukraine war.

Rising food and gasoline prices have deeply affected many sectors. The rising cost of living was expressed in the actions of almost all sectors.

One of the sectors with the most action in the country was health. Demands such as the problems that arose after the epidemic, the lack of personnel in the sector, and the allocation of more budget to the health sector were expressed in dozens of actions carried out by health personnel in the last year.

In March, one strike after another took place in the transport sector in Greece.

The railway accident, which occurred as a result of the collision of two trains traveling in opposite directions on the same railway on the night of February 28 in the Tempi region, 26 kilometers from the city of Larisa, in which 57 people lives lost, revealed the lack of infrastructure and safety systems on the railways.

The authorities were accused of negligence in pointing out the strikes and actions carried out by employees in the sector before the accident to draw attention to these problems and the lack of personnel.

As a reaction, throughout March numerous actions were carried out in all sectors of public transport, especially rail.

Bus and trolleybus employees also mobilized several times in April, demanding that safety measures be taken in all branches of transportation and that the vehicles used in transportation be changed.

On the other hand, retirees protested on April 4 calling attention to the high cost of living in the country, demanding an increase in their salaries.

Before the general elections on May 21, the government increased the minimum wage from €713 to €780 from April 1, 2023, in response to the rising cost of living. The minimum wage, which was 650 euros in February 2019, has increased by 130 euros in about 4 years.

On the other hand, the unemployment benefit for approximately 200,000 people was increased from 438 euros to 479 euros on April 1.

SPAIN

The unions in Spain celebrate this May 1 Labor and Solidarity Day for workers whose biggest problem is “filling the shopping cart, paying high bills and trying to deal with the rent or loan debt” as consequence of high inflation, rising prices and reduced purchases. increased power,” he demanded.

The country’s two largest unions, the General Union of Employees (UGT) and the Confederation of Trade Unions (CCOO), are holding demonstrations under the slogan “Lower prices, raise wages and distribute benefits.”

According to the latest official data in Spain, as of March 2023, 3,127,999 (13.27 percent) are unemployed in the country. (AA)