Economy minister (LSAP) had ‘appropriated’ May Day at 8am with a message--short compared to the two main trade unions’ platforms--to stress that the government had come to the aid of companies and employees with the tripartite measures “without manipulating the index or even questioning the indexing system in any way. Our measures were decided in close consultation and dialogue with the social partners. And as minister for the economy, I am particularly proud of this solidarity.”
We need the 10% increase in the minimum wage that the OGBL has been demanding since 2015. It is necessary, it is fair, it is long overdue.
Their common axes
Wage indexation. It has not been that simple, noted OGBL president . “It is about a year since the employer launched a full-scale attack on the indexation system. Together with the government and two unions they decided in March 2022 to suspend the indexation of our wages. We have not forgotten that we were the only ones to oppose this. We did not sign and we stuck to our red line. And we succeeded!” she recalled at Neumünster Abbey where her troops were gathered.
“We also finally need the 10% increase in the minimum wage that the OGBL has been demanding since 2015. It is necessary, it is fair, it is long overdue,” she said further.
Housing. While Back said that the housing crisis “urgently requires fiscal management, which decisively breaks down speculation in the property sector,” LCGB president went into more detail.
“We need to massively increase supply to meet demand and not let prices and rents get completely out of hand. This also means encouraging investment in housing construction. And the state must accompany this policy with structures such as the Housing Fund. However, the minister responsible must understand that the emphasis in the most recent bills is not in this direction. The European Central Bank’s interest rate policy is making this situation worse, as housing credit is becoming more and more expensive,” said Dury, who also pointed to the risks for the construction sector. “Employment in the construction and craft sector may also face major problems. Politics has not only missed the train in recent years, it has taken the wrong decisions.”
“For months now, the employers have been trying to prolong the negotiations with their doom and gloom, thereby sabotaging serious discussions,” warned Back. “Last week we gave the employers an ultimatum: if they don’t put very concrete and serious proposals on the table, our construction union has decided to take all necessary industrial action to improve the wages and working conditions of 20,000 people.”
Health. The health sector was the main topic of the LCGB leader's speech, who criticised problems in the supply of medicines or waiting times for an MRI or in the emergency room. "Our National Health Fund has meanwhile turned into a state within a state,” he analysed. “Self-indulgent and preoccupied with itself. Unable to deal with digitalisation. It takes the minister’s determination to bring this structure into line with the rulings of the highest courts in the country.”
Our National Health Fund has turned into a state within a state.
“The fact that insured persons become the plaything of conflicting medical opinions of medical control and occupational medicine, that people’s existence is thus put at stake and that seriously ill people are confronted with existential problems after 78 weeks, is only due to a perverse and completely broken system,” stressed Dury, who called for a restructuring of the CNS “with fewer management positions and more guarantees for the insured.”
“The LCGB demands that we finally clean up our social security. The LCGB demands ever more and faster treatment options for insured persons by creating efficient and decentralised structures that relieve hospitals and staff and allow for outpatient treatment, diagnosis and analysis throughout the country.”
“Our jointly funded public health system must be strengthened and further expanded, not reduced,” the OGBL president stressed. “It is not possible for performance to deteriorate or for two-class medicine to be introduced to save money. For this to be guaranteed, the health, care and social sector must always be in public hands and must not be outsourced to private companies.”
Two years after everyone was praising the unwavering commitment of the health workforce, the OGBL notes that nothing has been done to ensure that facilities are better staffed with qualified personnel.
A perverse interpretation of European competition law has handed over hundreds of jobs at Liberty Steel to a bandit and his schemes.
Industry. Both sides are alarmed by the threat to jobs at some industrial sites. “After the disastrous announcement by the profit-maximising shareholders of Dupont DTF and Husky that they wanted to make massive redundancies, the OGBL acted quickly. And it is thanks to the employees and the great solidarity that the path of ‘job retention’ has now been chosen,” said Back. “And we are not forgetting the almost 170 employees of Liberty Steel. Trapped by an employer we did not want and who is driving a good company into ruin, only because he himself has changed. People want to work. They want a future. The only problem is the employer, who refuses to sell the work and allow it to have such a future. The Liberty situation sums up very well all the failures of European industrial policy.”
Dury agrees with this analysis. “A perverse interpretation of European competition law has handed over hundreds of jobs at Liberty Steel to a bandit and his shenanigans,” said the LCGB leader. “The Von der Leyen Commission is the failure of the future of our Europe. It is unacceptable to pursue a policy that ruins European jobs, that calls into question the livelihoods of employees, that confuses an investment plan for the future with platitudes and that replaces the social component, the extension of the core of fundamental social rights, with a show of hustle and bustle by the commission.”
He also wished to “extend to the industrial sector the model that we developed in the steel industry and adapted at Luxair. I am very happy to see that the ministry of labour, the ministry of the economy and Fedil want to go down this road and that we are making good progress in the negotiations within the various companies. The LCGB’s aim is to negotiate a sectoral agreement for the industry, a framework in which the various companies concerned can become involved. The LCGB is not forgetting the 170 colleagues of Liberty Steel in Dudelange. They too should benefit from the model in case of a hard blow.”
The little niggles
The LCGB and OGBL do not have the same style. Neither do their leaders. To whom did they address a few little jabs in particular? Summary.
In Patrick Dury’s sights. In addition to the CNS, there was the management of Cargolux. “The LCGB demands solutions in the minds of the people who work in the companies. The industry has understood this. I hope that Cargolux will soon understand it too. Otherwise there will be no social peace. Social conflict will then be inevitable, with all its consequences.”
Then the “neoliberal and narrow-minded” European Commission. “The Von der Leyen Commission is the bankruptcy of the future of our Europe. It is unacceptable to pursue a policy that ruins European jobs, that calls into question the lives of employees, that confuses an investment plan for the future with platitudes and that replaces the social component, the extension of the base.”
The minister of the economy (neither designated by his function nor by his name). “We need an urgent discussion on our economic model. It is not enough to manage the crisis or to present in PowerPoint what our economy could look like in 30 years’ time,” referring to the Luxembourg Strategy.
In the sights of Nora Back. Luxembourg Employers’ Association (UEL) president , accused of considering “the OGBL to be the antechamber of the ministry of labour. If Mr Reckinger was right in his statement that the ministry of labour would dance to the tune of the OGBL, then things would have turned out differently. The promised reforms on the law on collective agreements, on the Employment Maintenance Plan, on social plans, on bankruptcies and on a right to continuing vocational training would have been set in motion long ago!”
Aleba, “a small corporatist union in the financial sector that wants to convince people that they are now looking for so-called ‘neutral’ delegates in all sectors, because they are selling themselves as so-called ‘neutral,’ so they are making it clear that, that they did not understand what it means to be a union. It goes even further, they (Aleba) are not pushing people to divide.”
The minister of education (not named, (DP)), “exacerbates inequalities through greater competition between schools. The teaching profession must be made more attractive instead of being increasingly stigmatised, as is now the case with the new training for new teachers. The same applies to the socio-educational staff in the field of early childhood: cheating on diplomas to keep salaries as low as possible, to the detriment of quality and childcare. The OGBL is also against an extension of compulsory schooling, which only consists in keeping young people from 16 years of age, who in fact do not want to go to school anymore, for another two years in a kind of private crèche for young people. Young people must be able to choose their own path.”
And the topics only addressed by one of the two
Right to disconnect. For Dury, who finally presented the new LCGB application “TonLCGB,” “it is imperative to regulate work via digital platforms in the interest of the employees concerned, even if there is still a fear that the Von der Leyen commission will scupper the next dossier.”
We need a general reduction in working hours.
Reduced working hours. To ensure that fewer people suffer from the pace of their work, Back said, “working hours must be shortened and labour law must be modernised and adapted to the changing business world. If we want to improve the situation of employees, if we want to become attractive again to attract more people, also from the greater region, then something must be done.”
“But dear colleagues, we need a general reduction in working hours. This does not mean that we should study what other countries are doing. We should take an example from them and simply put it into practice. Which, however, does not mean that you have to split many hours differently or work more at home. But it simply means working fewer hours.” A reduction in working hours that she wanted without any loss of pay for the employees.
Tax reform. Back developed five points. “Firstly, personal taxation with a tax progression that relieves low incomes, flattens the middle class and taxes high and especially very high incomes more heavily, up to a maximum tax rate of 50%. Secondly, the gap between the taxation of wages and capital must be reduced. A new balance must be created. Thirdly, there must be no further reduction in corporate tax! On the contrary. It must no longer be a societal option for the billions in profits of large companies and multinationals to escape taxation.”
“Fourthly, the housing crisis urgently requires fiscal management, which decisively breaks up speculation in the real estate sector! And finally, fifthly, a tax reform must do what the 2017 tax reform did not. Namely, the introduction of a mechanism to automatically adjust the tax scale to the evolution of inflation.”
Borders. For Back, “May Day is an international day that knows no national borders. And that is precisely what is so important for us to express, where we are in a country where almost half of the workers are cross-border workers. (...) We have been confronted on several occasions with political decisions which simply exclude more than 200,000 employees who help to create our wealth here. Scholarships, free hostels, free school books, free canteens, differences in social security and taxation: these are all examples of the discrimination to which cross-border workers are still exposed.”
This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.