“In fourteen years of career, I disengaged in all and for all one day and two hours”, smiles this employee of the railway company ÖBB, while controlling the travelers.

Austria is with Sweden the least striking country in the European Union (EU): two days per year for 1,000 employees between 2011 and 2020 according to the Hans Böckler foundation, which depends on German unions.

At the top of the ranking covering eighteen countries, there are 97 days a year in Belgium and 93 in France, according to a study by the foundation dated April 2022.

At Praterstern station, which serves the famous Ferris wheel that has become the symbol of Vienna, it is extremely rare for users to stay on the platform.

"Equals"

In this prosperous country of 9 million inhabitants, with full employment, both bosses and workers are determined to resolve conflicts by de-escalating upstream.

Olivia Janisch, a 46-year-old trade unionist who negotiated the recent pay rises, hails "a model" observed and envied abroad, when France is experiencing a day of massive strike.

Here, pensions are not a subject and when there are claims, "we speak as equals" with the employers, she said at the headquarters of the Vida organization which directly overlooks the Danube.

On January 18, 2023 in Vienna, Olivia Janisch, a 46-year-old Austrian trade unionist who negotiated recent pay rises in Austria © Alex HALADA / AFP

No struggle between chapels: a single structure brings together all transport employees.

It negotiates for white-collar workers as well as for blue-collar workers and claims more than 80% of inserts.

Public or private, all actors have the obligation to apply the increase, and this in each sector of activity.

Because the discussions are done by branch and not in the companies.

No employer escapes it: membership of the Chamber of Commerce is compulsory and the working conditions of 98% of employees are defined by a regularly updated collective agreement.

A much higher proportion than what is observed in neighboring Germany (55%) or the United States (12%), notes sociologist Susanne Pernicka, a specialist in the subject.

"Block"

“It is a system which integrates the weakest and which remains extremely stable in international comparison”, explains this expert from the University of Linz, referring for example to the low number of poor workers.

The model was born after 1945. "The interwar period was very conflictual and the devastating consequences of Nazism", in a territory annexed by Adolf Hitler, "led the State, employees and employers to find a means of reviving the economy and guaranteeing social peace", explains Ms. Pernicka.

Austria's success was helped by the "small size" of the country, she said.

Open economy wedged between East and West, it had to overcome divisions and "unite in the face of challenges" from outside.

Even if the cohesion sometimes cracks today under the onslaught of globalization, the bosses play the game and most find their account.

"The staff representatives will love me and I will be scolded by the accounts", had quipped the negotiator on the employers' side during the December discussions, Thomas Scheiber, quoted by the press.

But he too obtained a major concession: the burden is spread over the next two years, which the opposing party had categorically refused in the first round.

This consensus "allows to balance the interests" for Olivia Janisch, who shows her teeth and uses the strike "as a last resort", to send a "clear signal" on the determination of the troops.

© 2023 AFP