The FGTB had already announced a few weeks ago the organization of a general interprofessional strike on the same day. The CGSLB is, however, not in favor of such action. The CSC explains that it conducted “a wide consultation” and that it has once again confirmed the difficult financial situation of many workers, single people and parents. They “fear to face a freezing winter. Many people can no longer keep their heads above water and are drowned by the vertiginous rise in their bills”, denounces the union.
According to the CSC, its consultation “demonstrates that the social situation is very worrying. It also revealed that all these elements have very negative effects on the mental health of citizens: anxiety about bills, questioning the ability to know how to pay everything , concerning the future, etc.”
These reasons therefore prompted the National Office of the CSC to decide to organize a day of action and a general strike on November 9 so that “every worker” could “express his anxiety and his discontent”.
Concretely, various actions are envisaged: strikes, work stoppages, staff meetings, demonstrations, etc. Many people are concerned about the future of their business and cannot necessarily afford to lose a day’s pay, it is pointed out.
In order to “restore new positive prospects for workers”, the CSC calls in particular for gas and electricity prices to be quickly capped and for the social energy tariff to be extended to middle and low incomes and for it to be granted automatically. The Christian union also wants better compensation for home-to-work and business trips.
The CSC still wants the full envelope for the welfare linkage of social benefits to be distributed and an agreement to be reached with employers to strengthen the purchasing power of workers in sectors and companies when it is is possible, beyond the automatic indexation of wages.
The union’s demands also relate to an indexation of tax scales and to progress in tax reform “so that the pocket wages of workers increase, that the burden is transferred to the broadest shoulders and that the just transition is financeable”.
For its part, the FGTB had already announced a few weeks ago the organization of a general strike on 9 November. What the socialist union repeated in the wake of the federal budget agreement a week ago.
The CGSLB, for its part, is not calling for a general strike. The liberal union will however participate in the actions that will be organized in the sectors and companies that day, he said on Tuesday, saying that he attached great importance to individual freedom. In this spirit, the CGSLB asks that the choice of workers who do not want to strike be respected and says it is opposed to blockages of traffic.