Front commun syndical et nouveau pacte social
In: Res publica: politiek-wetenschappelijk tijdschrift van de Lage Landen ; driemaandelijks tijdschrift, Band 19, Heft 2, S. 247-268
ISSN: 0486-4700
Confronted with acute SE problems, the Socialist & the Christian Democratic trade unions in 1976 strengthened their "Common Trade Unions" Front' (with about 2 million members out of a total of 2,300,000 wage- & salary-earners in Belgium) in view of negotiating with employers & with the government, for which the trade unions have submitted a common platform. This common front has antecedents on the local, regional, & professional levels, but has never been & never will be of a permanent nature. This is due as much to historical, as to ideological causes. The principle of class struggle is basic to the socialist union, & christian doctrine is basic to the Christian Democrat concept. The two unions are imbalanced in their linguistic division. Socialists dominate the French-speaking South, while the Christians dominate the Flemish-speaking North. Each confederation wants to maintain its identity. From the employer's view (& to some extent completely independent from the trade union's common front) representatives of employer's organizations have launched the idea that a new & comprehensive "social contract" should be negotiated. The Christian Democratic Union favors such a pact, but since the socialist trade union rejects this idea--which would lead to a further integration in the capitalist system--the probability for such a pact to be realized at present is rather low. Modified HA.