Labor without rights: The foreign workers
They are the ideal plaything of the econo- deal to reduce
The following article from the December 2 issue of Die Linke, the paper of the
Austrian section of the Fourth International discusses a question that has become a key one in the labor movement of nearly all the northern European coun tries. The occasion for it, and the starting point, was a study done recently by the Sozialwissenschaftliche Studiengesellschaft showing the extent of antiforeignworker prejudice in Austria. The real antiforeign bigots are not the people who babble on at the family dinner table about "all these bohunks." They are not the ones who moan and groan about the "furriners' " noisy kids. They are not even the ones who write "Foreigners Out!" on walls and all the commonplace expressions of antiforeignism cannot be minimized. They do indicate dangerous prejudices that could be activated at any time. Already today, the antiforeignism that exists is used to justify discriminatory laws and a shortsighted policy by the
But there is a much greater danger than your prejudiced man in the street in study of antiforeignism can measure it. It is represented by the state officials and the interest groups that exploit antiat the same time as verbally industrialists. They note with concern the growing antiforeignism of Austrians. They talk about "social and humanitarian duty to the foreign workers" and about how essential the "foreign coworkers" are, even in "a period of recession." And what they are thinking about is their own economic interest.
This display of brotherly love for the foreign workers should not surprise anyone. The foreign workers suit almost ideally the demands of the "free market economy." Because they have no legal rights, they can be most easily used to drive down wages and as a pressure for maintaining labor discipline (that is, inhuman working conditions).
A study of the industries in which a relative high percentage of foreigners are employed show that most of the "guest" workers are in the lowest wage categories. In 1981, 22% of the workers in textiles were foreigners. In the restaurant and 18 hotel business, the percentage was 17.8%. In leather, it was 15.7%, and in the shoe and garment industry it was 9.4%. In agri-
The high percentage of foreign workin unskilled occupations easier for the bosses to keep the wages for these jobs even lower. Thus, in 1968, a helper or unskilled worker got 82% of a skilled worker's wage. By the middle of the 1970s, this had fallen to 75%.
Foreign workers have little defense against demands of the bosses that they wear themselves out on the job. They have to work particularly hard, be particonscientious. Finally, they are the first fired. And that has much more serious consequences for them than for their Austrian coworkers. Within no more than six months after they find themselves without a job, they are deported to their home countries, once again they face unemploy. ment and poverty.
The facts speak for themselves. The rate of industrial accidents is 150% higher among foreign workers than among Austrians. The rules about medical checks are generally avoided. In fact, the health of workers and their families is markedly worse than comparable Austrian groups (this is a result not only of the working conditions to which they are subjected but to the subhuman housing they get). In particular, the percentage of tuberculosis is considerably higher.
The great advantage that the foreign labor offers for the capitalist economy is its, in the fullest sense, "flexibility" and "mobility." These virtues will undoubtedly be demanded of the Austrian labor especially in recession
Moreover, the phenomenon of emigrant labor is fundamentally nothing new.
since the industrial revolution, workers have had to migrate to the places the capitalists consider most favorable for their operations. Pospisils in the Vienna phone book are a reminder of earlier migrations of workers the Austro-Hungarian empire. A lot of our great grandparents were foreign workers too. In the postwar period, however, labor migration has taken on unpre-
Today every seventh worker in Europe is a "foreigner."
One thing is clear. The situation of the foreign workers shows the anarchic logic of the established economic system particularly clearly. They can be hired and fired (and gotten rid of at any time.
mic royalists. The role that has been assigned to these workers as a cushion against fluctuations in the job market is maintained by the state through laws that serve the interest of these same economic
The Foreign Workers Employment Act passed on March 20, 1975, without a dissenting vote, is an instrument that can serve both in periods of boom and periods of crisis. The regulation about the quotas for foreign workers is as flexible as they themselves have to be. But where there is no flexibility is about the rights they have here. The Foreign Workers Act is the legal basis for denying any rights whatever to foreign workers in the workplaces and in society.
The text of the law begins by stating that employers can apply for work permits (Paragraph 3). The foreign workers themselves have no right to enter into contracts. What is more, work permits are good for a year at most, and are given only for specific jobs in specific firms in specific spots (Paragraphs 7 and 6 respectively). Thus, foreign workers in Austria are deprived of the most basic right of working people, the right to choose where they will work, and the denial of this basic right is established by law. The dependency of the foreign workers on their bosses is a modern form of slavery, and the way that they are traded on the labor market is a modern form of the
Regular recessions are carefully calculated into the law. Thus, work permits are to be given only "if the labor market justifies this." (Paragrah This is explained in the following way, "if the employment of a foreign worker for the job concerned does not threaten of a native." Furthermore, the hiring of a foreign worker is made conditional: "To maintain the jobs of native
.. foreign workers are to be laid off first." That is, foreigners must be laid off "if short hours for a considerable time can be avoided thereby." (Paragraph 8, section .) Thus, an unhealthy division of workers according to nationality was the
Moreover, the law provides for determining the number of foreign workers in accordance with economic ups and downs (Paragraph 12). This is simply the writing into law of the deals the so-called social partners (the unions, the bosses, and the government) have been making 1962. Thus, this year they worked out a the number of foreign
TürKenreus workers by 17,000. But already by the end of August 1982, 17,537 less foreign workers were employed than in the same month last year. This overzealous application of the quota means that in this period more than 10% of the foreign workers have been fired. Despite the fact that they represent only 6% of the total workforce, they account for over 50% of the jobs lost.
A small amount of the laid off foreign workers have been replaced by new ones. Thus, in 1982 in Lower Austria, 200 Yugoslav and Turkish workers were recruited. Foreign labor is exploited in accordance with the rotation system. The principle is that they are not to be allowed to put down roots, because they would limit their geographical mobility.
For the emigrant workers themselves, this means they are continually insecure. At the most, they can count on staying put a year, and even this little bit of security can be taken away from them at any time. So, there is no way that they can make any plans.
Because of this extreme insecurity, it is difficult and often quite impossible for foreign workers to bring in their families. Against this background, no serious social policy for dealing with the problems of the emigrant workers is possible. All the talk about "integration" means) takes on a hollow ring.
The role of the Austrian Socialist Party with respect to the foreign workers is, to put it mildly, disastrous. On the one hand, it never tires of appealing lor humanitarian sympathy and preaching equality for all, especially in the recent period when the activities of right-wing antiforeign circles have been becoming bolder. On the other, as the government party it is responsible for legalizing inequality, for the fact that the law considers certain human beings inferior.
So long as the SP does not fight for the equality before the law of all workers, regardless of their nationality, all then appeals for solidarity with the 'guest" (1) workers remains hollow. It is a false notion to believe that the phenomenon of antiforeignism can be tackled on the human level without changing the laws.
Antiforeignism has economic and political causes. It is, to a certain extent, created by those who run the state and the economy. As long as it does not exceed certain limits, they find it useful. Since it is inscribed in the laws, in the Foreign Workers Employment Act, all the well-intentioned deploring of it is of little use.
There is often a pernicious interaction between the prejudices of a large section of the Austrian people and the text of the laws. For example, the poll done by the Sozialwissenschaftliche Studiengesellschaft showed that 78% of Austrians agreed with the following statement: "The foreigners often come here with their children only so that they can collect the high Austrian family allowances that we pay for with our taxes." In the Foreign Workers Employment Act, it says that before a foreigner can be given a work permit, "it must be ascertained whether there are grounds for suspecting that there was an intent to abuse the Austrian social welfare and family allowance laws and whether this was a factor in the applicant's decision to take employment on Austrian territory."
THE ATTITUDE OF THE UNION
BUREAUCRACY
The Austrian trade-union confederation (OGB) is not any less antiforeign than the Social Democratic government. It considers that its first duty is to defend the interests of the Austrian workers. Layoffs of foreign coworkers are not considered layoffs: "They're only foreigners." If they are sent back to their home coun tries, they do not show up in any of the unemployment statistics. Appearances are maintained. The much admired "Austrian Model"(2) has not suffered any loss of prestige.
On the other hand, the OGB is very interested in collecting dues from the foreign workers. These are often deducted from their wages without their even
Foreign workers have no real voice in the factories. They are not eligible either for election either to the factory councils or to the chamber of workers representatives. Thus, grotesque situations can arise where almost all the workers in a factory are foreigners, and the two or three Austrians there are the ones that have to be elected to the factory council.
Under these conditions, factory coun cils that feel responsible for the foreign workers are often torn between the demands the higher levels are obliged to make and the pressures of their own base, which has little sympathy with the foreign workers. "A factory council that doesn't look after the native workers' interest is going to get brickbats thrown
Austrian graffiti, "Turks out' (DR) at it," a factory council member wrote out of bitter experience.
The shortsightedness of the workers organizations on this question can have disastrous results. The assumption that the "release" of foreign coworkers is going to make the jobs of Austrians securer in a lasting way is going to prove to be a deception, and this may happen very quickly. In fact, the foreigners are only the final and weakest link of a long chain. Once they are gone, it is the turn
†Women who have to be sent back to
†Handicapped and older workers who cannot keep up with the speedup.
+Workers in out-of-the-way areas and
*The politically undesirable, who should be removed in order to keep the "social peace" from being endangered.
The winners are the bosses, who get a free hand to carry through their rationalization plans.
From this standpoint, supporting the "guest" workers represents more than solidarity with a group that by itself is too weak, and most importantly too deprived of legal rights, to defend its own interests and demand its human rights. In this society we are all foreign workers. Only a united struggle by Austrian and foreign workers can be effective against layoffs and unemployment. (1). The euphemistic term coined for foreign workers in the German-speaking countries is "Gastarbeiter," literally "guest worker." (2). Austria has Social Democratic government and a relatively large amount of state intervention in the economy, to a considerable extent because a part of the country was occupied by the Soviet Union from the end of the war into the 1950s. At the same time, until re cently it has remained little touched by the world economic crisis. Therefore, the SP claimed to have discovered a new and more successful model for running the economy.
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