Edition from Saturday, December 2, 2023
Innsbruck (OTS) – It was a metal worker’s wage agreement with hanging and choking. The social partnership is still alive, but has suffered further scratches. However, Austria continues to lose ground due to the location’s excessive inflation.
On Thursday evening, white smoke still rose from the metalheads. And apart from long-outdated rituals, a lot was different this time: the negotiations didn’t “just” last three to five rounds, but eight. Accompanied by extremely harsh verbal battles, anonymous threats and massive waves of warning strikes.
This time there was no question of the signaling and guiding function of the metallers’ group, which is otherwise so often emphasized: While the metallers literally ate each other for ten weeks, other sectors did not wait long for the metallers to act as a leader, but concluded their collective bargaining rounds comparatively quickly and quietly – with them an increase of 9.2 percent each in the social economy or in the security industry. And the government also reached an agreement with the officials before the metallers with an increase of 9.15 percent – of course without the restraint recommended by Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) and other political grandees and without a one-off payment that they had previously made for 2024 specifically made tax exempt.
The metal musicians, who were exposed to tough international competition, were overtaken both in terms of time and height. Gross wages and salaries rise by 8.6 percent, low incomes by 10 percent. It was concluded for two years, and next year there will be one percent more than rolling inflation.
The social partnership is not dead, as some people repeatedly accuse it of being (like former finance minister Schelling), but it is ultimately still in a (trust) crisis. There is also a huge crunch in retail and other sectors. Although social partnership is still often a stabilizing factor, it is anything but a driving force for reform. And that is exactly what is needed in view of the many crises and global and social upheavals.
Austria, and this is neither the fault of the companies nor the employees, has lost its competitiveness, especially in recent years. During Corona, ex-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz loudly announced that Austria would emerge stronger thanks to the huge financial injections on credit. Whether that was the case is questionable. But that is certainly not the case with the wave of inflation, on the contrary: Austria has unfortunately been at the forefront of inflation since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine to this day – and is therefore losing its competitiveness as a location. And that is extremely dangerous for our prosperity. Politics would have long been even more challenged than the social partners. Their measures were either the wrong ones or too timid.
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