Western Europe: The Luxury Strikes

Two Western European countries last week were affected by strikes involving not blue-collar workers but professionals near the top of the economic pyramid. In Swedish newspapers, the walkout by a variety of university graduates was called "the luxury strike." To an unsympathetic French press, a work stoppage by members of flight crews from three airlines was "the strike of the rich."

Sweden: The Big Lockout

For 25 years Sweden Incorporated, as Swedes affectionately call their country, ticked along as smoothly as a Swiss watch. Steady economic growth was matched by full employment. Swedes enjoyed Europe's highest per capita income. Most enviable of all was the nation's record of labor peace. Except for one drawn-out struggle by iron miners in remote Kiruna within the Arctic Circle, it had not suffered a major strike since 1945, when metalworkers staged a five-month walkout. All of this seemed even more remarkable in light of the fact that virtually everyone in Sweden--even clergymen--belongs to a labor union.

Last week, like a good watch whose mainspring has finally sprung, Sweden's finely meshed economy was immeasurably slowed. Off their jobs were all the people who rarely strike anywhere else in the world: 11,000 state and municipal civil servants, customs officials, judges, social workers, dentists, doctors, tax adjusters and train dispatchers. The number was swelled by the state collective-bargaining agency, which last week locked out 25,000 teachers. This week 1,000 scientists and 3,000 Swedish military officers--among the unions' highest-paid employees--will also be barred from work. Some 20,000 reservists were not at all unhappy, since the government canceled practice maneuvers.

No Divorce. If the lockout of men engaged in the nation's defense boggled outside observers, it little surprised Swedes. Military officers enjoy the right to negotiate as a union and to take strike action (though they have never done so). Stockholm's morning newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet, published a wry cartoon showing a large billboard inscribed with what it called a message from the Minister of Defense: "It is forbidden to engage in war against Sweden during the lockout." Meanwhile, Defense Minister Sven Andersson assured critics that key men in defense posts would be exempt from the lockout.

Otherwise, Swedes found services hit and miss. They could still get married in church; ministers are not striking. But they could not get divorced; court officials are not at work. Passenger trains were stopped throughout the country, and huge traffic jams clogged urban areas as people turned to buses and private autos. Airlines were slowed because half the meteorologists were out; so were boats plying Sweden's rocky coastline because 185 of 400 pilots stopped working. In Stockholm's largest court, only nine of 80 prosecutors reported for work. As imported products piled up in warehouses, some industries laid off workers for lack of raw materials. One young biologist, who was writing a doctoral thesis on the genetics of fruit flies, was locked out of Stockholm's Genetic Institute because he is an instructor. But he won the right to go back in because he is also a graduate student, and he was thus able to keep his fruit flies--and his hopes for a doctorate degree--alive.

Closing the Gaps. In the past Sweden kept labor peace by a combination of civility (including a gentlemen's agreement never to surprise the opposition) and an elaborate system of centralized wage negotiations designed to keep the government's role to a minimum. The current dispute developed a month ago, when the 110,000-member Central Organization of University Graduates (SACO) and the 20,000-member Central Organization of Civil Servants (SR) began a series of strikes after four-month wage negotiations broke down. The impasse developed from the unions' demands for pay boosts of between 18% and 22%.

Prime Minister Olof Palme says that any wage packet over 7% to 9% would "threaten the economy of the country." Supporting Palme, the government's collective bargaining agency, Avtalsverket, ordered the lockouts in hopes of draining the unions' tills as fast as possible and forcing them back to the bargaining table. Significantly, blue-collar unions have not walked out, though their average annual wage ($4,900) is less than half that of the striking white-collar workers ($10,200). Palme, committed to what he calls "increased equality" in Sweden, has promised legislation that will close the broad gap in job security, vacations, pensions and working conditions. To narrow the difference in wages, the dynamic young (44) Prime Minister has suggested that the biggest increases should go not to well-paid professionals but to those at the bottom of the wage scale.

France: An Excess of Greed

French strikers last week were also far from the bottom: they were pilots, navigators and flight engineers, nearly half of whom earn more than $20,000 a year for flying a maximum of 68 hours per month. They also get a 30% tax rebate and 40 days of annual holiday. When they struck for even shorter hours and higher pay, France's three leading airlines retaliated by locking out 2,400 members of flight crews. With nearly 350 daily flights canceled, the lockout is costing the airlines a combined $1.8 million daily in operating losses. The flight crews have not found much sympathy from either public or press. Commented Le Monde: "The pilots have an excellent image. Do they have to spoil it through an excess of greed?" What most bothers French aviation men is the possibility that a prolonged suspension will eat up reserves earmarked for such new purchases as the Boeing 747 and the Franco-British Concorde.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.