[Workers at the Glaverbel-Gilly glassworks in Charleroi, Belgium, refused to accept the bosses' decision to phase out their plant, eliminating 589 jobs. Instead they organized a militant six-week strike that forced the parent company, the French multinational trust BSN-Gervais-Danone, to shelve its planned "rationalization." During the strike the workers occupied the plant, continued production under supervision of the strike committee, and arranged for the sale of the glass they produced.
[The agreement ending the strike was signed at the end of February. The farreaching terms of the settlement and an account of how the strike was organized are given in the following interview with two members of the Glaverbel-Gilly strike committee. André Henry, who was a leader of the strike, is a member of the Ligue Révolutionnaire des Travailleurs (LRT), the Belgian section of the Fourth International
[The interview was printed in the April 2 issue of the Swiss revolutionary-socialist fortnightly La Brèche. It was translated for Intercontinental Press by Barbara West.]
Question. After six weeks on strike, how do you size up the results?
Henry. I think that we really made some gains from the strike, that we won a victory.
Take, for example, the first demand in our manifesto, "No dismissals, no shutdown." First of all, no one has been fired. As for the demand to halt the shutdown, we can say that at least two-thirds of the employees will be assured of a job in the factory within at most one year. The important thing is that this two-thirds of the work force includes the core of the union activists in the plant. Up to the time when jobs are reclassified, a year at most, all the workers now on the payroll will remain, and work will be shared through partial layoffs. All the workers will get their full salary (along with full benefits). Thus, to the extent to which layoffs can be "turned around," we have a chance to stay together for a year, get our bearings, and plan additional actions.
The job changes provided for in the settlement will be voluntary and agreedupon by the unions and individuals involved.
G. I think that what we won, without loss of wages, is unique in all union struggles that have taken place to date.
Q. In the present context of deep crisis in the capitalist system, what significance does this victory have for the workers movement?
Henry. To the best of my knowledge, what was just won at Gilly in face of a threatened shutdown represents something new.
When you realize that we won our demands on such important points as no layoffs, creation of jobs at the Gilly site, continuing payment of wages at the same level, and all this at a time when the workers movement faces a crisis and an increasingly firm response from the bosses-well, I think that news of this victory should be spread far and wide so that it can become an inspiration to others.
Furthermore, the fact that we won these demands from a multinational corporation, BSN, makes us appreciate the results of our fight even more. We know that BSN chose Gilly precisely because it was a pacesetter in union activity. They thought they could crush us. But it didn't work out that way. And that is going to pose a problem for BSN. How are they going to refurbish their policy of rationalization after this initial unsuccessful attempt?
Q. Can you briefly tell us about the methods you used in organizing your struggle, particularly their importance for the development of the struggle and for raising the workers' consciousness?
Henry. They say that at Glaverbel-Gilly new forms of struggle are becoming a tradition! The truth of the matter is that we are perhaps the only plant to have launched four strikes, three of which were very important: the first and part of the second against attacks on the right to engage in trade-union activity, the rest of the second in May 1974 around the list of demands, and the third today.
Each time the entire work force elected a strike committee, which this time was backed up by workers committees. Each time we held daily meetings. In this strike, it is especially important to emphasize the bold move that was taken in selling the glass. Finished products have been sold before (watches, vases, and so forth) but never an industrial product. Of course, we knew from the beginning that it would not be an easy job, but it was the best way to show our determination in the struggle, to assert the power of the workers against the power of the bosses, and to provide ourselves with the means for a strike fund.
New forms of struggle also appeared in the contacts we made and the actions we carried out with other BSN subsidiaries, such as the occupation of the Boisfort offices, contacts with the Danone plant at Janche, and the visit to the Boussois comrades with whom we initiated the demonstration at BSN's central headquarters in Paris. It was the first Europe-wide demonstration and had been planned by the workers. The demonstration was a great success. We occupied the offices and forced BSN's chairman of the board to explain their position to all the demonstrators, and to come to Charleroi the following day to face the union representatives and strikecommittee members at the negotiating table.
I would like to clarify a point about the role of the strike committee. Some union delegates from other plants have said, "If I'm on my own in peaceful times, no one is going to tell me what to do in time of war."
But the strike committee is not set up to keep check over union delegates. It simply takes on responsibilities during a strike, and the union delegates play their role as a part of this committee.
G. The strike committee is not set up because of any lack of confidence in the union delegates. It is simply the best way to strengthen and organize the struggle. Delegates who have the workers' confidence certainly have nothing to fear from the election of a strike committee.
Henry. On top of that, the strike committee helps increase workers' confidence and militancy. Electing their own representatives, subject to recall at any time as is the case at Gilly (the workers recalled one strike-committee member during the strike), is a measure of their confidence in and commitment to the movement.
With a strike committee holding daily meetings, the workers follow the strike from day to day and take the initiatives that are necessary. It is the workers who take charge of and direct their strike.
Q. How did political organizations respond to your strike?
Henry. The PSB' and the Communist party issued statements of solidarity and raised the question in parliament, but it must be said that in the actual struggle few of their members were seen taking part in the effort to build the solidarity movement.
In all objectivity, it should be pointed out that the LRT worked very hard in support of our strike. They made a major effort, and the Gilly comrades could see the role and importance of a political organization that, on the national level, put all its resources into getting out the facts about the strike and organizing solidarity for it.
As for the Maoist comrades of the UCmIB,? who for years have consistently rejected the line and the methods of struggle at the heart of our action at Gillysuch as workers control-these comrades go so far as to speak of a defeat, indeed even a betrayal, because we are not continuing the fight to keep the jobs of all 589 workers in the plant.
What they fail to understand is that we are now entering the second phase of the struggle: seeing that the agreements are carried out and in the process forcing the company to keep the maximum number of workers on the job.
For that we have to be vigilant; we have to elect a committee to oversee such things at Gilly as new investments, subsidies, and so forth. We are going to hold weekly meetings to maintain a spirit of vigilance and militancy.
To continue the strike to keep every last employee would mean taking a great risk and would probably end in defeat. For it is absolutely certain that a strike by all the workers in the region would be necessary to win immediately that second round. In the present situation, given the position that has been taken by the union leaderships, by some shop stewards, and even by many workers, that would without doubt mean taking a great risk and perhaps even losing what we have won so far. If we had been able to link these two phases of the struggle together into one, we would have done so. But the relationship of forces at a given moment has to be taken into account.
Protests Force White House to Give Up Air Base in Greece
Eight days after a demonstration of 300,000 persons demanded the removal of U.S. and NATO bases in Greece, Washington was forced to give up an air base near Athens and home-port facilities for Sixth Fleet destroyers.
According to a joint communiqué issued by the U.S. and Greek governments April 29, other U.S. bases will be placed under Greek commanders while negotiations continue. The expectation is that agreement will be reached "on the elimination, reduction and conservation of other United States facilities in Greece." Among them are installations for missiles with nuclear warheads.
Notes
1. Parti Socialiste Belge-Belgian Socialist party.
2. Union des Communistes (marxistes-leninistes) de Belgique-Union of Belgian (Marxist-Leninist) Communists.