workers are getting closer, and we help them put out their strike paper. The more time passes, the stronger the coordination is between us.
The conflict on the Icelandic labor market today is more over the general conditions for the labor movement in
Printing workers in the forefront Janne AKERLUND REYKJAVIK-The printing workers were the first to go on strike. I met one of their:
Einar Magnus Sigurdsson. we walked through all the rooms in the printing-workers' headquarters, met the members of the strike committee, and got the latest information from all the pickets, he began explaining what led up to the
"We printing workers are not in the Icelandic National Labor Confederation, and so we have always had to fight by ourselves. We had a referendum on joining the National Confederation, but the proposal failed to get enough support. We signed a contract in March that we could renounce if buying power de-
"We want to get a contract as soon as possible. But despite the fact that we gave ten days notice for the strike, as compared to the usual six, we got no answer from the employers."
The printing workers have been on strike now since September 10, when International Viewpoint 12 November 1984 there was a vote for a walkout. The public workers started their strike on October 4.
"What worries us most today is that the National Confederation is continuing to negotiate," Sigurdsson said.
"We know very little about how that is going. They are talking about negotiations with the government on tax relief. This is a question on which there divided opinions in the Icelandic workers' movement. I don't think that we can strengthen buying power by that
We have low taxes here in Iceland. And the unions are not going to be the ones te take responsibility for further spending by pushing through lower taxes.
"There was unanimity on the decision to strike and we have maintained our the bosses' attempt to split us. On Thursday, we had the biggest union rally yet and a new ex pression of this unity. There was a proposal at the rally that we should not stick rigidly to our demands, but a huge majority rejected that, and then everybody united behind the union leadership in the
"But the strike has demonstrated problems in the Icelandic workers' movement. The fact that the other unions are the country. The wage demand that the strike started over is receding into the
"For us, what is at stake is the justification for our existence as a union, and in the public workers' union the main thing they are talking about is what sort of a political answer to the government the workers' movement can come up with."
At the time, most people were talking about what the future might hold since there was a lull in the conflict at the
Everyone was waiting to see what would happen. I asked Einar what he expected for the future, what he thought was going to happen.
"There are two kinds of future today," he said. "One is what is going to happen next week. The other is what is going to happen as regards solidarity and the coordination and political role of
"I think that the workers' movement is going to take the steps needed to win this conflict. Right now there is a lull, but soon things are going to start happening again. Then, after the conflict, we important discussion in the workers' movement before the National about what done to strengthen the Icelandic workers'
"As for the near future, there are three government and the bosses may make an acceptable offer, they may try to outlaw the strike and call new elections, or there may be a general strike."
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