Tens of thousands of people in Vienna packed the streets on Saturday to voice their opposition to loosening labor laws to allow for a 12-hour workday and subsequent 60-hour workweek.
Police in Vienna said some 80,000 people took part, while the trade unions that organized the protest said some 100,000 people attended.
"We will resist with all means at our disposal," Wolfgang Katzian, president of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB), told the crowd.
Katzian called on the Austrian government to let voters decide on the 12-hour workday issue in a referendum.
Currently, Austria has an eight-hour workday and a 40-hour workweek; however, there's a provision in place allowing companies to have their employees work up to 10 hours a day and up to 50 hours a week.
The right-wing government, comprised of Kurz's conservative People's Party (ÖVP) and the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), argued that the changes to the labor laws are needed in order to give businesses more flexibility.
Kurz's government had to roll back certain provisions in their draft law after a heated debate broke out with the opposition over the permitted reasons employees could provide to refuse to work more than 10 hours per day.
The government eventually backed down and said employees will be allowed to refuse to work overtime without giving a reason.
So this is the face of the hip new 'populism'? Truly, bending your country over so it can get railed by porky that much harder is the new counter-culture.
Jonathan Gutierrez
Every time.
Jaxon Edwards
How many hours do they want? 13?
Owen Ward
Nothing says PUNK RAWK like spending every waking hour working for the man.
Aaron Murphy
It's only your life they want, your waking hours. 7 hours of sleep is yours, and you can ride home on public transit and watch some vids on your phone
Adrian Barnes
when will pol realize that the parties they cheer for are basically neo-libs with an added layer of edginess?
WORK MORE, EARN LESS, GAY WHITE PRIDE
Cameron Myers
That's an oxymoronic name
Nolan Flores
Capitalists were fine with 18 hour workdays before the 'darn commies' ruined their fun
John Miller
Freedom™ is when there's less regulations on how much of your soul you can sell to the devil. Being able to sell yourself into slavery is max Freedom™.
Daniel Robinson
They are actually going after the fucking 8-hour workday. Really.
Japan: In an effort to limit incidences of Karoshi, a Japanese term for “death by overwork,” parliament passed a new law limiting overtime work to less than 100 hours a month per worker. Before the law, there was no limit to the number of hours companies could ask their employees to work, as long as labor unions didn’t make a fuss. In South Korea, a law that lowered the country’s maximum workweek to 52 hours, down from 68, also took effect this week. Those who make their employees work more than 52 hours weekly now face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to $24,484.
There's nothing >currentyear about this, tho. There's no reason the "progress" capitalism "made" can't be undone, and the system itself (by its very nature) tends towards this direction when left to its own devices. When these steps were taken, the capitalists made them as concessions to a more and more life threatening working class.
Grayson Murphy
Which only underscores the failure of "social democracy" and other half measures. When your boot is on the neck of the bourgeoisie, don't take it off until they stop breathing.
I need that pic of an ex marine working multiple jobs and braising freedums :DD
Jeremiah Sullivan
lol, i work 70 hour weeks as a "wall guy" (dont know the english name, but i turn raw walls at construction sites into house walls) for 9$ and that is not a misstype that is a 9 (nine) dollars a day cant even use the toilet while im on work no healthcare, not even registered anywhere as a worker, no pension either
serbia, building the "belgrade waterfront" or "belgrade on water"
there's a horde of us construction men of all sorts (electricians, heavy lifters, cementers, pipe and plumbing people, hidroisolators, welders, everyone really) and we are building these new expensive looking (on the posters at least) office buildings pretty sure you can find it online
tho i gotta say, drink and radio really improve the atmosphere there is something about emotional mood that helps a lot with the workload, i know its not exactly a measurable or scientific thing but when you are boozed up and when the radio is blasting music we can all sing to, the days go by easily and working 10 hours every day with no stop keeps your mind occupied, you dont think about anything and before you know it you are 60 and in pension, that's at least what people tell me, im 22 and doing nothing with my life just like everyone else i know
Lucas Mitchell
but are you serbian or an illegal immigrant without a contract? fuck man…that's awful, why don't you guys unite and strike?
Jaxon Taylor
i have to add, i have worked 12 hours a day as well, as a cook in a retirement home. it was from 8 to 8, but we only worked two days, then we had two day offs. Still those 12h were really tough making breakfast, lunch and dinner for 350 people. Your experience seems so much worst, damn…
Alexander Murphy
im a serb from belgrade, we arent striking because only 1/5th of the youth even has a job, you can leave when ever you want no one cares, they can replace all of us at any second, there arent any other jobs out there, everyone i know works 10 to 12 hours every single day for subsistence pay, its just how life is and no one knows any other way
Nicholas Green
fugg :DD b-but now you have pizza hut and mcdolans, just like us, r-right?
not really, that's a bit of a luxury food over here believe it or not, i could eat it but it would set me back a lot we usually eat bread (bread loaf is 0.2$), vodka (homemade) and chilly peppers (i grow these on the roof of my house, i live with parents) so really its bread + chilly peppers and vodka shots through out the day
purchasing restourant or fast food, imagine it costing 1000$ for you, because over here we work all day for 9$ and ordering that food is like 50$ and i have staying alive expenses too
who would give a shit if we unionize? new workers pass through this place every single day, none of us are even registered as workers, people off of street would gladly fill the places
and most important of all, how the fuck am i supposed to stay alive after they kick us all out? i also have a sick grandma
Zachary Johnson
(checked) You know how to speak english and work hard, why don't you emigrate to EU?
Carter Cox
..because they would simply return me back where I came from? who called me to eu? who wants me there? where is my visa or permit or whatever the paper thingie is to be there? serbia isnt in the eu or shengen zone and i dont have a legitimate asylum claim to be there either serbs who go to eu either have a strong degree and a job and all the papers waiting for them or a criminal intent
Lucas Ross
blockade your workplace, sabotage work sites of the same company, that's what we do here in south america, it's not like you guys have the same problem as us here where the employer just pays hitmen to kill you all, and nobody cares
To bad Socialist party of Serbia is SucDem and also brainwashed with psychotic Nationalist shit
Isaac Walker
FPÖ much like the dutch VVD and PVV descend from the "Nationalliberalismus" tradition present in central Europe that developed from the 1848 liberal revolutions and through the Kulturkampf period. They opposed the catholic corporatist/distribustist "Christian Social" parties, with their protestant belief in free enterprise and all the other things 19th century liberalism usually stands for - one of those things being again freedom to do whatever you want. That's where this use of the word freedom comes from.
Even as the christian social parties dissolved into Ordoliberalismus after the war, the wording stayed popular since by then the enemy had shifted to those damn dirty commies that want to take away our freedoms. Once the cold war ended these parties went into a bit of a slump (except for the PVV but that's another story) until the 2010's when they found another perfect enemy in the EU which is again, to them, an oppresive organism that wants to take away their freedom and national sovereignity. So now the Freedom parties have been able to perfectly ride the populist souverainism wave.