More Swiss construction workers go on strike
Following strikes in Ticino and Geneva earlier this month, 1,500 construction workers have continued the protest in French-speaking Switzerland.
According to the labour unions, more than 1,500 workers from cantons Freiburg, Neuchâtel, Valais and Jura put their tools down on Tuesday.
About 80% of construction sites in the canton of Neuchâtel were shut down – an impressive figure, said Edy Zihlmann, trade union secretary of the local branch of labour union Unia.
And in canton Valais, about 400 construction workers took part in a protest march leading to the office of the local builders’ association. According to Nico Lutz, head of Unia’s construction section, it was the first time that construction workers in Valais were protesting.
Nach den Protesttagen im Tessin und in Genf wehren sich heute über 1‘500 Bauarbeiter in mehreren Westschweizer Kantonen. Sie legten die Arbeit nieder, um für die Rente mit 60 und ihren Gesamtarbeitsvertrag zu kämpfen. #BauProtestTageExternal link https://t.co/irZQzB4SpLExternal link pic.twitter.com/XUY84PNu7aExternal link
— Gewerkschaft Unia (@UniaSchweiz) October 30, 2018External link
+Some 3,000 struck in Ticino on October 15
+In Geneva, 1,800 went on strike on October 16
The strike, a relatively rare phenomenon in Switzerland, comes amid ongoing negotiations for a new union agreement in the construction sector. The current agreement expires at the end of the year. The striking workers denounced an alleged upsurge in temporary working on building sites, precarious job situations of older workers, and massive sub-contracting often leading to the use of cheap foreign labour.
The next protest action is scheduled for Thursday in Bern; construction workers in other parts of Switzerland will follow next week.
More
Over 18,000 construction workers demonstrate in Zurich
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