Workers more radical than their unions

The strikes are spreading in Slovenia's steel and electrical industries. The daily Dnevnik writes that workers are no longer afraid to harm the competitiveness of their companies to achieve their goals and are becoming far more radical than the unions that represent them: "They've had enough of low wages and the adverse economic situation. We are seeing a clear discrepancy between what the workers want and the rather modest demands of their unions. While the unions are putting forward their demands in the meekest of tones and agreeing to pay increases of no more than a few percentage points, the workers are demanding wage hikes of 30 to 50 percent. Doubts about the unions' integrity and accusations that they are 'working hand in hand' with the bosses have widened the gap. But the people who make such claims forget that the unions are also fighting to survive, and that only they can mobilise huge masses of people."

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