BY ANITA ÖSTLING AND HILDING EKLUND
COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Half a million workers have launched a general strike here over demands for vacation time. This is the country's first general strike in 13 years, involving 10 percent of the population. Workers have shut down workplaces in industry, construction, freight, retail, air traffic, and other vital sectors of the economy.

At the Copenhagen international airport, unionists have stopped all major flights, allowing only small planes to land. Airlines have had to fly passengers to neighboring Scandinavian capitals and bring them into Denmark on buses, ferries, or small planes. Meanwhile, Swedish auto maker Saab announced plans for temporary layoffs of 4,000 workers, citing a lack of auto parts as a result of the strike in Denmark.

Some 200,000 workers demonstrated here on May Day, the international workers holiday. Support for the strike was the axis of the mobilization. The confrontation escalated May 5 when employers locked out 60,000 nonstriking unionists, mainly shop assistants and electricians.

The strike began April 27 after members of the national federation of trade unions, LO, voted down a contract proposal by a 55 percent margin. Negotiations between the unions and the Employers Confederation had begun in January but broke down in February, and a government mediator stepped in. Angry at the drawn-out process, unions called a "Day of Action" March 13 in which thousands of workers demonstrated for a contract.

LO and the Employers Confederation reached agreement March 31 on a contract proposal from the mediator. The two- year contract included a raise in the minimum wage of about 27 cents each year, reaching $10.75 an hour; a 4 percent wage hike, Christmas Eve as a holiday; a 34-hour workweek for workers with rotating shifts, down from 35 hours; and a raise in pensions.

The employers and 13 of the 14 leadership committees in the union federation recommended a yes vote. But workers surprised both employers and union officials with their decisive "no" vote. The strike was on.

The main unresolved issue in the strike is the unions' demand for a sixth paid vacation week. With an upturn in the economy and Danish bosses raking in huge profits, many workers feel confident to demand some improvements themselves.

"Our normal workweek is 37 hours and we have five weeks vacation a year," noted Bjarne Hopner, secretary of the Warehouse and Retail Workers Union, in an interview.

The employers offered Christmas Eve as a holiday. "But 70 percent of industrial workers already have that day off," remarked an indignant Jan Pedersen, a member of the Electricians Union. "It was our own negotiators who said okay to that deal. The employers just did their job, and they did it well. But we felt betrayed when the employers were on TV beaming with pleasure [announcing the contract proposal]. I ask myself whether our negotiators really squeezed out what they could get."

Ben Larsen, another union worker, commented, "We want to put pressure on the employers to grant a sixth vacation week. But if we can only get a few days off this time, it must not be Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve." The demand for a sixth vacation week was prominently featured in a demonstration and a strike rally of 5,000 called by LO in downtown Copenhagen on the second day of the strike. Unionists carried out another day of national demonstrations in the eight largest cities on May 5. The main slogans of the demonstrations were "More free time!" and "Less pressure!"

Some employers have tried to move work to other countries. The Transport Workers Union in Sweden announced it would block Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) and the catering company Gate Gourmet as of May 8. SAS has rerouted flights from Denmark to Sweden, but some unions in Sweden say they will refuse to carry out struck work from Denmark.

The previous general strike took place in 1985 and was ended through government intervention. The conservative government imposed the mediator's proposal and ordered workers back to work, a highly unpopular move among union members.

The current strike follows the March 11 general elections, which gave a boost to the Social Democratic prime minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen. In a surprise move, Rasmussen called the elections in February, at a time when the standing of the Social Democrats in the polls was poor. The opposition was expected to win by a wide margin. Two days before election day, the leading poll indicated support for the Social Democrats at 30 percent of voters.

Two days later, the Social Democrats received 36 percent of the vote, allowing Rasmussen to remain prime minister with the backing of a few smaller parties. These election results follow a pattern of electoral victories for social democratic parties in France and the United Kingdom last year.

This electoral backing from working people, who have heightened expectations, has put the Rasmussen government in a bind. The pro-Social Democratic daily Politikken noted that "the Social Democrats also fear that [government] intervention that sets aside the `no' vote by the workers will increase the danger of a `no' vote in the referendum on the Amsterdam treaty May 28. Angry voters could find an outlet here to punish Nyrup."

The Amsterdam treaty is supposed to replace the Maastricht treaty as the basis for the European Union. In Denmark the treaty must be ratified through a national vote.

Hilding Eklund is a member of the Metalworkers union and Anita Ostling is a member of the Transport Workers Union in Stockholm.  
 
 
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