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Collective action in Austria
"We will not be sold to Hitler"
The trade unions' desperate struggle against National Socialism and why they ultimately failed - by Marliese Mendel
The end of the young democracy in the First Republic was already announced in 1920. The Christian Socialists took over the government, while the Social Democratic Workers' Party remained a reliable partner in opposition to the strong workers' movement. This movement was not only conspicuous through strikes and boycotts, but also through demonstrations, its demands and its resistance to Austrofascism and National Socialism.
Workers' Murderers
This was also the case when two "workers' murderers" who had killed a workers' child and a trade unionist in Schattendorf were acquitted 1927. Outraged people streamed to the Palace of Justice after the verdict was announced, the police fired into the crowd - in the end the building burned, 89 people were dead, more than 1,000 injured and more than 900 charged. It was clear: governments that let people be shot at have no understanding of democracy. It was the beginning of the end of the young republic.
Paramilitary military units
Bank failures and the world economic crisis brought high unemployment and worsening social laws in the 1930s. At the same time, paramilitary military units of the Christian Socialists, the “Heimwehr” and the Social Democratic “Schutzbund” marched through the streets - and the National Socialists carried out attacks and celebrated their first electoral successes.
Crisis in the Rules of Procedure
On 4 March 1933, the democracy of the First Republic finally came to an end: the Christian Social Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß took advantage of a loophole in the parliament's Rules of Procedure to shut it down. Assembly bans, censorship, and a shutting down of the opposition followed, the Austrofascism was set in motion. The Free Trade Unions took to the streets against it. Nevertheless, they could not prevent the victory of the Austrofascists.
Mass arrests
After the February struggles in 1934, the Social Democratic Workers' Party and the Free Trade Unions were banned. Suppression, surveillance, mass arrests, fear, and suspension of the rule of law were the consequences. So was the founding of a single trade union organized by the corporative state. The social democratic trade unionists who were now acting illegally were arrested and sentenced to long prison terms. Nevertheless, they did not give up. The 1936 works council elections were the only elections during the Austrofascist dictatorship. Despite all the circumstances, social democratic works councilors were successfully elected.
Too many fascists
Nevertheless, Austrofascists had little to oppose the pressure of the National Socialists. In the July Agreement of 1936, Germany agreed in theory to recognize Austria as an independent state. However, Kurt Schuschnigg, as Dollfuß's successor, released the imprisoned National Socialists and allowed German propaganda magazines to be published. The illegal trade unions recognized the danger that had arisen and also agreed to defend Austria's freedom alongside the state under certain conditions. Neither Schuschnigg nor the press had any interest in this.
Hitler meanwhile openly threatened to invade and made his demands. However, the call for a general strike was not heard by the united trade union after Schuschnigg had gone a long way towards accommodating Hitler in the Berchtesgaden Agreement in February 1938.
Resistance of the workers
Parts of the Austrian labour force reacted immediately and violently. On February 14, there were protests in some Viennese factories under the slogan "We will not be sold to Hitler". There were calls for a general strike. But the president of the united trade union rejected strikes, saying that this would give Hitler cause to send troops to put down the "Bolshevik uprising".
On February 17, the presidents of all the illegal trade unions and the main workers councils of the large Viennese companies to take a stand against the National Socialists and for free trade unions. This was eventually signed by around one million workers and employees.
Freedom!
On February 20, 1938, Hitler gave a speech to the German Reichstag: The Berchtesgaden Agreement was the first step towards the incorporation of Austria into the German Reich. "We want a free Austria! Freedom!" chanted the workers who took to the streets. And: The illegal workers' organizations worked out a paper under which circumstances they would support the struggle for Austria's freedom. Schuschnigg hesitated and only received them on March 4, 1938. While Labour Minister Hans Rott, State Secretary Adolf Watzek and Johann Staud, chairman of the austrofacists united trade union, conducted laborious negotiations, while the pressure from the National Socialists grew.
Demands to Chancellor Schuschnigg
On the 7th of March, the leadership of the illegal Free Trade Unions convened a worker councils conference. 350 worker councils discussed for hours and finally came to the conclusion: "We are ready to work for the defense of Austrian independence, but this readiness is not unconditional, it is linked to the legalization of the Free Trade Unions and to the granting of amnesty for imprisoned trade unionists". Other demands were also made, such as freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and free elections.
The situation came to a head. Schuschnigg announced a referendum on Austria's independence and previously unimaginable alliances emerged. The Austrofascists and the illegal workers' movement demonstrated together for Austrian independence on 10th and 11st of March 1938, the National Socialists against it.
An agreement too late
When Hitler ordered the invasion on the 10th of March, the workers waited in vain for the official call for resistance. A referendum was cancelled. An agreement reached earlier, which among other things would have allowed the publication of a free trade union newspaper and lifted the ban on workers', cultural and sports associations, was no longer important.
Mass gatherings and first escape attempts followed. In Floridsdorf 10,000 workers were ready to march into the city and fight the Nazis. But they would have been outgunned by the Nazis with clubs and hammers. They had to watch powerlessly as the Nazi terror against Jews, anti-fascists and Austrofascists began that same night.
The end
On the 12th of March, Hitler marched in and was greeted with shouts of “Heil”. At the same time, the “Schutzstaffel”, the Sturmabteilung and the Gestapo began a massive wave of arrests. Around 70,000 people were arrested in a very short time, including many trade unionists, and put into prisons or deported to concentration camps without charge. The illegal organization of the Free Trade Unions was smashed, Austria disappeared from the map and the inhuman regime of the National Socialists took its course.
To ensure that this never happens again, the ÖGB has been fighting since 1945 for an Austria in which fascism, racism, sexism, and discrimination have no place.
"More Free Time, More Being Human": the 40-hour work week
Implementing reductions in working hours has always taken a long time. On May 1, 1890, around 100,000 demonstrators in Vienna demanded the introduction of the eight-hour work day. It was not until 29 years later that the National Council passed the eight-hour work day law, the 48-hour work week. The next goal was the 40-hour work week. First demanded at the Free Trade Union Congress in 1931, it took an eventful 44 years until it was implemented.
Back to the 60-hour week during the Second World War
The Austrofascists did not repeal the eight-hour work day law, but it only existed on paper and the National Socialists introduced the 60-hour week. In post-war Austria, the Constitutional Court and the Administrative Court disagreed on whether the eight-hour day law applied or the Nazi regulation. In 1948, however, the trade unions were sure that there was an urgent need for a legal reorganisation of the working time law. Politicians took their time; four drafts introduced between 1950 and 1958 were rejected.
Trade unions take working time reduction into their own hands
Since the beginning of the 1950s, 48-hour weeks were agreed in collective agreements. At the third ÖGB congress in 1955, the delegates decided, among other things, to gradually reduce the working week from 48 to 40 hours - with full wage compensation, of course. Again, some collective agreements succeeded in reducing the working week from 48 to 45 hours - even if it took one strike or another to achieve this.
It did not take a strike, but a lot of sitting down, until the general collective agreement on the reduction of working hours from 48 to 45 hours - with full wage compensation - was signed between the ÖGB and the Federal Chamber of Commerce in December 1958. From February 1, 1959, 1.6 million people worked less and some even received additional wage increases.
Gradual introduction of the 40-hour week
The trade unions celebrated the successful agreement, but at the same time demanded a modern working time law. After all, collective agreements can simply be terminated. The business community, however, feared the "ruin of Austrian industry and the loss of international competitiveness". The Economic Advisory Council disagreed with them and argued that the introduction of the 40-hour week by the mid-1970s was quite economically possible.
In May 1969, during the sole government of the Austrian Conservative Party (ÖVP), the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) launched a petition for a referendum to introduce the 40-hour week and almost 890,000 people signed it. In September, the social partners agreed on a gradual reduction of working hours until 1975. On December 31, 1969, the National Council passed the Working Hours Act.
Shortly afterwards, in 1983, the motion "On the introduction of the 35-hour week" was passed at the 10th ÖGB Federal Congress. Collective agreements again stipulated shorter working hours, mostly 38.5 hours per week, but in some cases also 36.
Reduction of working hours as an antidote
The Corona pandemic also cost hundreds of thousands of people their jobs. As an antidote, the ÖGB calls for a reduction in working hours. There are enough ideas for this: the four-day week, the sixth holiday week for all and other models of working time reduction.