NO TO ALL LIMITATIONS TO THE RIGHT TO STRIKE!
The strike is the most powerful weapon in the hands of the working class when it fights for its interests and against attacks directed towards it. That is why it is fenced in by a wall of limitations. The strike is the most dangerous weapon that the workers can use on their place of work, because the profit immediately ceases to flow into the pockets of the owners.
It is because it is so dangerous that they want to limit it. Because it is so dangerous, it is already restricted:
- By forcing labor unions to announce strikes seven working days in advance, the companies get an additional seven working days to prepare for the strike and to minimize its effects.
- By letting the National Mediation Office, whose central assignment is to make sure that the increases in wages never surpasses the so called “mark” that the industry sets, postpone strikes in order to mediate, the companies are given additional time to prepare for strikes.
- By centralizing the decision-making within the labor union-movement to the central board, local initiatives are thwarted and the individual unions are limited in their right to strike.
Today, the right to strike is limited through these measures, as well as in other ways. Now the companies and the leaders of the labor unions want to limit it further, in order to increase their profits and to be able to attack the living and working conditions of the workers even more aggressively in the future – that is why the government has now sent out a proposal for further limitations.
The Communist Party of Sweden fights for an unlimited right to strike – what guides us is the struggle of the workers, not the profits of the capitalists!
THE PROPOSAL ON THE LIMITATIONS TO THE RIGHT TO STRIKE…
…means that it will become illegal to strike with another purpose than to achieve a collective bargaining agreement. This means that it will no longer be legal to strike for fired colleagues and comrades or for demands that go beyond the framework of the collective bargaining agreement.
…means that it will become illegal to strike if the labor union has not negotiated with the company on all demands that are put forth in the strike, before the strike is set to begin. This means that the labor unions are forced into time-consuming negotiations before it is possible to strike, which means that the companies win even more time to prepare.
…means that it will become illegal to strike if at some point during the strike, additional demands are added. When a strike is underway, it will only be possible to strike for the demands that were presented at the beginning of the strike. If the company fires workers during the course of the strike, the entire strike will be judged to be illegal, if the strikers demand the re-hiring of the fired workers.
…means that it will become illegal to replace already signed collective bargaining agreements. The first agreement in the workplace is the one that regulates wages and conditions of employment – this agreement will become impossible to replace. When the companies decide to create their own, yellow, unions that agree to much worse conditions than the workers’ own unions, the agreements signed with the yellow unions will apply to all the workers in the workplace and it will become illegal to strike or to fight for the removal or changing of this agreement.
The Communist Party of Sweden refuses to accept the class-laws that are forced on us by the monopolies and the corrupt union leaders – throw them out and make the union into fighting organizations of the working class!