BELGIAN LABOR MOVEMENT
By Henri Vallin
BRUSSELS -- The year 1964 opened auspiciously for the Belgian working class with two important gains, A few weeks before New Yearts Day, after brief negotiations between the trade unions and employers! associations, legal vacations with pay were increased for all Belgian manual workers and white-collar employees to three weeks with five weeks Pade This is the most advanced legal system of paid vacations enjoye y workers anywhere, .
On January 1 a new law went into effect on sickness and injury compensation, This extends free sickness compensation (free medical service, pharmaceutical products ax and hospitalization) bs all old=age
pensioners, widows, orphans and invalid workers.
Both conquests, achieved through negotiations rather than direct struggle, have of course been hedged with many reservations which are correctly criticized by left-wing militants of the Belgian labor move~ ment. The extension of the paid vacation system from two to three weeks is-to be introduced in two stages {three more days in 1964, the! full three weeks to begin only in 1965). The employers have the right, in some industries, to stagger the extra vacation days throughout the year (into the slack season, for instance), which would prevent the workers in these instances from actually lengthening their vacation trips, Also, in exchange for the concession, the unions have agreed not to press Gemands for a 40-hour week before the end of 1964,
4 As for the free sickness compensetion for old-age pensioners, this is limited to those with an annual income of less than gl, 500 [£530], which excludes many white-collar pensioners as well as govern= ment office workers, The contribution exacted from the workers to the general sickness and injury compensation system has. been increased to the special disadvantage of the better-paid metal and steel workers and the white-collar employees. The government has made many conces~ sions to the reactionary medical associations which in Belgium, as in most other countries, strenuously oppose any progressive medical care provisions. :
Nevertheless, taking into account ell the shortcomings, these reforms undoubtedly represent a significant step forward for the Bel~ gian working class. The striking fact about them is the relatively easy way in which they were obteined. The demand for three weeks! vacation was first advanced by the leader of the left wing of the socialist trade-union federation FGTB [Fédération Général des Travail~ leurs de Belgique] in a radio. speech at the end of August 1963, Immediately after this speech, the demand was supported by the whole FGTB as well as by the Catholic trade-union federation cSC [Confédéra-
ee Ce tion des Syndicats Chrétiens}. Representatives of the employers first opposed the claim, But as soon as negotiations opened at the beginning of December 1963 it became clear that they would give in.
The free medical care provisions for oldeage pensioners and other low-income workers were included in the election platforms of all the major political parties in the spring of 1961, following the big general strike of December 1960-January 1961, When the medical asso-= ciations started their big opposition campaign against this "free _medicine," it was generally assumed that the Christian Social party, which is’ the main bourgeois party, governing Belgium in coalition with the Socialist party, would drop the plank in order to appease bourgeois public opinion, This didn't happen, however, The pressure of the Catholic trade unions and Catholic workers mutual aid societies was sufficiently strong to compel the government to keep its campaign ... promise.
Wheat is the explanation for the relative ease with which these new concessions were won from the Belgian bourgeoisie?
First of all, the "boom" should be noted. This is really. roliing. Jt was only in 1963 that Belgium experienced something like full employment. Belgian exports expanded by more than ten percent and industrial production by 6.5 percent. The boom resulted from-reserves: of productive capacity and manpower contrasting to the shortage of © workers and equipment in most other West European countries, Another contributing factor was that Belgian wages have risen much more: slowly than those in neighboring countries in previous years. Under these © conditions the employers cen evidently make considerable concessions in order to avoid strikes: and to be able to exploit’ the favorable — conjuncture to the hilt,
The main reason, however, is political, Although general conditions of "boom" and rising wages do not favor the radical left, and although the left wing has lost some positions in the Socialist party, _ the existence of a seasoned left tendency with mass support outside the’ control. of the traditional reformist and clerical trade=union bureaucrats represents a ma jor potential threat to -the capitalist state and economy.
When the Walloon Popular ifovement, against the open opposition. of all the big political parties (with the exception of the Communist party), gathered not less than 650,000 signatures in a short period, the potential strength of this left wing was strikingly confirmed, (The petition opposed a constitutional reform, already underway, that keeps the unitary state structure against the wish of the Walloon Pepular Movement for a federal structure. )
‘At the head of a mass movement favoring inmediate - social or economic demands, on which the government refused to yield, this left wing could grow with enormous speed, threatening the grip éf the established trade-union leadership. Because they are very conscious of this possibility, the employers -= and their government ~= are prepared to make considerable concessions. in hope of blocking it.
This is part.of the reason why wage increases in 19635 amounted to nearly ten percent, a ‘great contrast to the situation during the past five years,
“There is, however, a Limit to the concessions The Belgian . "boom! depends strictly upon what happens in Western Germany, Holland, France and Italy. (Nearly sixty percent of Belgian exports today go to Common. Market countries.) The Belgian. employers can grant conces= sions to the workers only as long as trends in the Common Market arenot reversed, and as long as the concessions do not seriously threaten their rate of profit and their competitive strength compared to foreign capitalists.
When these-conditions change, they will again harden their atti-~ tude, and this might very well be the signal for a new stage or intensified class struggle in Belgium. ..