made their policies a reality. A similar analysis could be usefully made of the threat posed by the Maastricht criteria and a European Central Bank to other crucial areas of public services and welfare provision, such as education, social services, and benefits. • UNISON's national leadership is frantically back-tracking on the union's conference policy of opposition to the Maastricht criteria. A UNISON-organised seminar of European trade unions heard Deputy General Secretary Dave Prentis say that UNISON had "grave reservations" about EMU, which "may be deflationary, cause slow growth, high unemployment and worse public services." But rather than oppose entry. Prentis favours surrender: "EMU is here to stay and therefore we cannot ignore it even if we disagree." • EMU and the DANISH trade unions have launched their first all-out indefinite general strike since 1985. From midnight April 26 over half a million workers in the private sector walked out. " The strike follows the rejection of the employers' final offer in the two-yearly contract negotiations in a secret ballot of the membership. Wide sectors of industry and services are closed down, including Copenhagen airport and docks, rail and road transport and manufacturing industry. Within hours supermarket shelves were being emptied as shoppers panicked and stocked up against inevitable shortages.
The deal offered by the employers is a 4.5% wage rise this year and 4% next year. The most contentious issue however is holidays. The employers offered only one extra day, against a union demand for the extension of annual holidays from five weeks to six. Union leaders who initially urged acceptance of the offer are now backing the strike, at least at the moment. They are in a difficult position with May Day coming up, and don't want to go on Mayday platforms having ended it with a shabby deal.
Likewise the Social Democratic government has no plans to intervene before the Mayday holiday -and may be reluctant after that. They are concerned about winning the referendum on the "son of Maastricht" Amsterdam treaty on May 28th - and alienating either the trade union leaders or the trade union members is not the best way to do it.
The Danish strike follows the recent one day general strike in Greece. The strike and the militant demonstrations which went with it were the biggest such actions in Greece for many years, and were triggered by plans to cut costs at the state owned Olympic Airways. This included a freeze in wages and a lengthening of working hours. opening shots of a new round of austerity and privatisation in the public sector as the Greek government struggles to meet the Masstricht criteria for the single currency. Greece is the EU's poorest member, and failed to qualify for membership of the single currency in the first round. In the government 's view, unless drastic measures are taken now Greece will fail again for membership in 2001.
Economy Minister Yannos Papantoniou has said that public spending would be cut by, among other measures, "using private sector finance to complete several infrastructure projects". Cuts in health and welfare budgets are also planned, as the government aims to hack back spending by the equivalent of one percent of GDP.
THIRTY years ago, a wave of struggles erupted in N no, that's the other point. It expressed at the electoral level by the