New layoffs at Frankfurt airport

Marianne Arens

Among workers hit by mass layoffs in Germany’s air transport industry, employees of WISAG were among the first to react. At Frankfurt Airport, dozens went on hunger strike in February. They have protested there every week since against their illegitimate dismissal.

WISAG workers protest in front of the villa of the group’s CEO Michael Wisser, March 27, 2021 (Photo: WSWS)

Just recently, another WISAG operation at Frankfurt Airport announced mass redundancies. Aviation Service GmbH (ASG), which belongs to the Wisser Group, laid off 87 of the 610 workers still employed there. Before the pandemic, there were almost 800 staff, but all temporary employees and agency workers had already been dismissed. ASG is responsible for aircraft interior cleaning and transport services. As with the WISAG workers, numerous long-serving, experienced workers, as well as 12 severely disabled people, are being fired for cost-savings.

Airport operator Fraport, security provider FraSec, Airport Personal Service GmbH and Lufthansa are also systematically realising their plans to further enrich themselves in the pandemic and to ensure shareholders benefit.

Fraport boss Stefan Schulte made this clear at the quarterly press conference on Friday, May 14. “We have used the crisis to reduce our costs significantly and to make our company leaner and more efficient,” he boasted. What this means in plain language is shown by the figures. The Rhein-Main Airport operator has cut around 4,000 full-time positions since the beginning of 2020, reducing its personnel costs by 250 million euros. In Frankfurt, Fraport is currently destroying another 500 jobs.

The biggest jobs massacre is taking place at Lufthansa. Since the beginning of the crisis, the national carrier has cut up to 60,000 jobs, or 43 percent of its total worldwide workforce of 138,000.

But the airlines generally assume that flying will quickly pick up again. “The desire to travel is unbroken,” the Fraport CEO said at the press conference. Supported by the vaccination campaign and extensive testing, “we assume that we will see a significant increase in passenger numbers again in the summer.” While these figures have been severely impacted by the pandemic, he said, in terms of cargo volume, Fraport has witnessed massive increases, even surpassing pre-pandemic times. The first quarter of 2021 showed a 7.3 percent increase in cargo at Frankfurt Airport compared to the first quarter of 2019.

Nevertheless, job cuts continue, even among ground workers. More and more companies, like WISAG, are taking the axe to reasonably paid, permanent jobs. Long-time workers are being replaced by young, cheaper and temporary workers and are subjected to ever more brutal workloads. Meanwhile, for those laid off, both the severance pay and the prospects of finding new, comparable jobs in the labour market are getting worse and worse.

To fight back, to protect all workers against job losses, wage theft and the threat of the pandemic, workers must organise themselves independently. In aviation, as in all industry, they must build action committees to link up with their colleagues in other workplaces and at all airports. Above all, they must organise themselves independently of the trade unions, which have long since ceased to represent workers’ interests but are committed to defending the profits of big business.

This is particularly clear at the Frankfurt airport with regards to Lufthansa. There, the unions Verdi, UFO (cabin crew) and VC (pilots) have voluntarily offered massive wage reductions and savings amounting to billions of euros and have themselves helped to push them through. For ground staff, 50 percent of wage costs are now being cut through a “voluntary” income waiver that represents a “new dimension of trade union sell-outs,” as the World Socialist Web Site wrote in early December 2020. Verdi did not lift a finger in the fight against the WISAG dismissals either, and workers acknowledged this by placing a black wreath in front of Verdi headquarters in Frankfurt.

But even the smaller sectoral union IGL, which the WISAG workers have joined, does not have a significantly different perspective than that Verdi or IG Bau (whose representatives sit on the works council at ASG). For example, a declaration of loyalty by the unions assuring Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr of their “support in all necessary measures to stabilise our group in these difficult times” bears the signatures not only of the secretaries of Verdi, UFO and VC, but also of the IGL secretaries Daniel Wollenberg and Thorsten Spreu.

On 12 May, the IGL carried a webcast on the struggle of the WISAG workers (“Still dismissed after six months now”). Two WISAG workers, Habip Bektas and Ertugrul Kurnaz, who are both actively involved in the struggle against the illegitimate dismissals, were invited to speak. It is clear from this webcast that IGL officials and workers have vastly different perspectives.

Bektas made it clear that no severance pay can replace a job. Originally, WISAG only wanted to pay workers pitiful severance pay of 3,500 to 4,500 euros, even though they had worked at the airport for 20, 30 or 40 years. In the meantime, at the court conciliation hearings, these sums were slightly increased to about 20,000 euros. But, as Habip noted: “Even if I got 40,000 euros—this amount would probably be enough for one year, but then it’s over! I still have to continue working for another 20 years, and that would be a huge loss.” He said he would continue to fight.

Both WISAG workers stressed that illegal dismissals were more and more becoming a general business model for all corporations. “At WISAG, there is planned action behind it,” said Kurnaz. He added that WISAG also used the same vile practices in Berlin.

Habip added: “Other companies will follow suit. There is a system behind it: It’s a wage-dumping spiral that pulls everything down.”

In contrast, IGL leader Thomas Klappert made it very clear in the discussion that he has “complete understanding” for the employers’ side. “It has to be said, in aviation, the employers are also pretty much in trouble at the moment, because we are not picking up speed.” Against his better judgement, he claimed that there were “quite good examples like Lufthansa, which first of all says: we are keeping the people on board.” In reality, Lufthansa is destroying 60,000 jobs!

The prerequisite, Klappert continued, was, “Of course, the work has to return.” At the end of the discussion, Klappert appealed on behalf of the IGL to “Mr. Wisser and Mr. Dietrich. You are in charge. … Talk to us and make sure that we come to solutions.” He could not show more clearly that the primary goal of the IGL is to be accepted as a negotiating partner by corporations like Lufthansa and WISAG.

In contrast, Bektas appealed to his fellow workers: “To all colleagues who work at the airport or around it: It could happen to you in the same way. You too can be dismissed and end up in a situation like us. Therefore, stand up and support us!” Before that, he repeatedly says in the discussion: “We workers have a right to our job. … It is important to me that we keep our jobs. This struggle of the working class will continue.”

WISAG patriarch Claus Wisser has meanwhile commented on the dismissals. He said that he had “withdrawn as head of the company and left all decisions to the junior—his son,” and therefore he could “no longer do anything for the WISAG workers.” This is, of course, just humbug. As a member of the supervisory board, Claus Wisser Senior still holds all the strings, and no decision is made against his express will.

The coronavirus pandemic has made it clear that to secure profits, capitalism will trample over corpses. While at least 3.4 million people worldwide and almost 87,000 in Germany have already died from COVID-19, the corporate bosses, bankers and super-rich are using the pandemic to increase profits. For 15 months, federal and state governments have refused to consistently shut down unessential businesses and schools, with financial compensation to those affected, to get a grip on the pandemic. Instead, they are throwing huge sums in the craws of the corporations and banks, which they then cut out of the ribs of the working class.

American imperialism is responsible for Israeli war crimes in Gaza

Andre Damon

Around the world, millions of people are shocked and outraged at the brutal terror bombings, ethnic cleansing and communal violence being carried out by Israel, a US client state, against the people of Gaza.

Two hundred and twenty-seven people, including 63 children, have been killed in Israel’s ten-day-long assault on Gaza, a figure nearly 20 times higher than the number of Israelis killed in the conflict.

Protesters supporting Palestinians walk down Michigan Ave., as President Joe Biden visits a Ford electric vehicle center nearby, Tuesday, May 18, 2021, in Dearborn, Mich.(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

These crimes are committed using American armaments, funded by American tax dollars, and with the approval of the American government. They are facilitated by arms deals and military alliances created behind the backs of the American population and orchestrated to facilitate the predatory interests of the US financial oligarchy.

On Monday, after a week of murderous bombardment of the Gaza’s civilian population, US President Joe Biden began a telephone discussion with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by declaring, in the words of the official readout, “The President reiterated his firm support for Israel’s right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks.”

When on Tuesday Biden visited Dearborn, Michigan, the city with the nation’s highest percentage of Arab American residents in the United States, he was greeted by thousands of people protesting the crimes Israel is committing with US support.

Asked if he would take a question on the conflict from a reporter as he was test-driving a new Ford truck, Biden replied, “No, you can’t. Not unless you get in front of the car as I step on it.”

On Wednesday, Biden again spoke to Netanyahu about “Israel’s progress in degrading the capabilities of Hamas and other terrorist elements.” Biden said he expected “significant de-escalation today,” a request that Netanyahu proceeded to ignore, declaring that he is “determined to continue this operation until its aim is met.”

Biden’s request for a “de-escalation,” presented by the media as a major shift in US policy, is a cynical ploy. Since the Israeli bombardment began, it has received the critical assistance of the US and the other major imperialist powers.

On May 6, just days before the onslaught on Gaza began, the Biden administration informed Congress that it approved the sale of $735 million worth of JDAM and SDB smart bombs to Israel—the very type of munitions now being rained down on the population of Gaza. In the fiscal year 2019, the United States provided $3.8 billion in foreign military aid to Israel, and Israel benefits from nearly $8 billion in US loan guarantees.

The United States has used its veto power 42 times to protect Israel from resolutions censuring its conduct in the United Nations Security Council—more than half of the vetoes the US has ever exercised in that body. This includes three vetoes of resolutions calling for a cease-fire in the course of the latest massacre.

In May 2011 and March 2015, Netanyahu was invited to address joint sessions of Congress—occasions he used to berate and threaten the Palestinians.

While the US government backs Israel to the hilt, the US media is busy whitewashing Israel’s atrocities.

The most egregious example is the Wall Street Journal, which openly defended Israel’s bombing of media outlets in Gaza last week. On Saturday, Israel destroyed an 11-story building in Gaza housing the offices of the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, and other media outlets.

Sneering at the “cries of outrage and an admonition” at Israel’s actions, the Wall Street Journal bluntly defended Israel’s war crimes:

But who’s really endangering the journalists?... Using civilians and journalists as shields is a common Hamas tactic… Inevitably there will be mistakes in war, and civilians will die, but it’s remarkable how discriminating Israel’s targeting has been.

The claim that the population being used as “human shields” was used to justify the infliction of mass civilian casualties by the United States in the Gulf War, the bombing of Yugoslavia, and the 2003 “shock and awe” bombing of Iraq. Now, this filthy apology for war crimes is being dusted off once again to justify mass murder by the Israeli military.

The other major US newspapers, while not dipping their hands so gleefully in the blood of the Palestinians as the Wall Street Journal, express essentially the same line. “Israel did not start the war that now rages between it and Hamas,” begins the only editorial on the conflict published by the Washington Post. This, of course, is a lie, as the clashes were triggered by the eviction of Palestinian families from East Jerusalem by Israel, followed by Israeli military raids on the al-Aqsa Mosque earlier this month.

While the Post has been mostly silent on the onslaught against the Palestinians, its propaganda machine has kept turning, belching out editorial after editorial condemning Russia and China for their alleged “human rights” violations. A few examples should suffice:

• · May 16 – “China’s repression of Uyghurs is not only cultural, but also physical, a new report shows” – Falsely claiming that China is carrying out a “genocide” against its Muslim population.
• · May 17 – “Two possible theories of the pandemic’s origins remain viable. The world needs to know.” – Falsely claiming that COVID-19 may have been created through “experiments” at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in a conspiracy theory debunked by the World Health Organization. China, declares the Post, “acts as if there is something to hide.”
• · May 19 – “Apple must resist China’s tyranny” – accusing Apple of collaborating with alleged violations of the freedom of expression by China. It demands that Apple cease collaborating with the Chinese government and collaborate more directly with the American government.

As for the New York Times, the mouthpiece of the American Democratic Party establishment, which supported the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria—it has not published a single editorial on Israel’s attack on Gaza.

This brief review is sufficient to establish the modus operandi of the US media. Since the birth of US imperialism on the world stage with the Spanish-American war, all US foreign policy has been justified by emotional accusations about the tyranny and crimes of those targeted for conquest or exploitation. And these claims have had precisely no correspondence to the actual tyranny and injustice that occurs throughout the world, a large portion of which is sponsored or carried out by the United States itself.

Responding to Israel’s atrocities, figures in the “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party have criticized Biden’s support for Israeli war crimes. Commenting on Israel’s attack on the Associated Press headquarters in Gaza, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter, “This is happening with the support of the United States… If the Biden admin can’t stand up to an ally, who can it stand up to? How can they credibly claim to stand for human rights?”

Ocasio-Cortez is correct to lay the blame for Israel’s war crimes at the feet of Washington. But if the Biden administration is to blame, all of those who endorsed Biden—like Ocasio-Cortez herself—also bear that blame. The fact is, Ocasio-Cortez speaks as an embarrassed defender of US imperialist aims, concerned that the shameless endorsement of open war crimes by Netanyahu hinders the ability of the United States to posture as a defender of “human rights.”

Any serious defense of the interests of the working class in the United States and in every part of the world starts with the rejection of US imperialism and its lying pretensions to the defense of “human rights.” The foreign policy aims of the United States are dictated by the same corporations that ruthlessly exploit its working class and have presided over the criminal response to a pandemic that has killed nearly a million people in the United States alone.

COVID-19 mutations trigger new outbreaks across Southeast Asia

Mike Head

The COVID-19 catastrophe in India is threatening to spread to Southeast and East Asia, including in locations such as Vietnam, Singapore and Taiwan, where lockdowns and other safety restrictions had previously kept infections low.

The outbreaks across the region are another stark warning of how quickly new waves of the pandemic, driven by more infectious variants like B.1.617, first identified in India, can get out of control and overwhelm chronically-underfunded and inadequate hospital and quarantine systems.

Commuters wear face masks and practice social distancing while onboard a subway Wednesday, May 19, 2021 in Singapore. (AP Photo/Zen Soo)

In the past month, B.1.617 has appeared in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, accelerating infections and deaths. In some countries, especially Cambodia, the British variant, known as B.1.1.7, has also taken hold.

This has been aided by the refusal of governments worldwide to implement effective lockdown and containment measures because that would affect corporate profits.

The emerging crisis has been worsened by “vaccine nationalism.” Unconscionable delays in global vaccination programs, particularly for the billions of people living in the most impoverished parts of the world, caused by the mercenary interests of the wealthiest Western powers and the pharmaceutical giants, have allowed more transmissible and deadly mutations to develop.

With the exception of Singapore and Cambodia, less than 10 percent of the adult population in each country across the region has received a single vaccine dose.

Even according to official statistics, the regional toll is soaring, and it is almost certainly much higher, especially in rural areas, as reported recently by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which calculated that COVID-19 deaths globally are twice the recorded figures.

* New reported cases in Malaysia have more than tripled in the past month, hitting 4,765 on May 12. This forced the government to introduce a four-week partial national shutdown, but it is still allowing factories and businesses to operate.

Malaysia had recorded over 470,000 cases with 1,902 deaths as of Sunday. It has the third highest infection rate in the region, behind Indonesia and the Philippines, despite Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin declaring a state of emergency in January, ostensibly to contain the pandemic.

“Our health care, with the increase in numbers, is becoming a bit overwhelmed,” Malaysian Medical Association president Subramaniam Muniandy, told the Economist on May 15. “Frontliners are tired, exhausted.”

The Malaysian government has said it aims to inoculate 80 percent of the country’s 32 million people by December, but only around 1.2 million people have received at least one dose of a vaccine so far, according to health ministry data.

* Thailand’s daily tally jumped from 50 in early April to more than 2,000 a month later. More than 10,000 cases have so far been revealed among the 310,000 prisoners in its 143 jails. Bangkok’s hospitals are filling up, with 35,055 COVID-19 victims in the country’s hospitals or field hospitals.

Thailand reported on Monday a daily record of 9,635 new coronavirus cases, bringing its total infections to 111,082. Thailand also announced 35 new deaths on Tuesday, taking its overall fatalities to 624. Only about 1.5 million of its 66 million people have received a single vaccine dose.

* Cambodia reported 350 cases on Sunday and three deaths, taking its fatalities to 150. Of its about 20,000 recorded infections, nearly 90 percent have occurred since the start of April. By mid-May, the B.1.1.7 outbreak had infected thousands of people and killed more than 100.

* In neighbouring Laos, the government reported 47 new cases on Monday. Of these, 38 were in Bokeo province, home to the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, which caters to tourists. As of Monday, Laos had confirmed 1,638 cases, with two deaths. The government only partially shut down the capital, Vientiane, in April and sealed the country’s borders.

* Vietnam’s Ministry of Health reported the country’s 36th and 37th deaths on Saturday and Monday, the first since September. It reported 187 new confirmed cases on May 16 and 182 more on May 17. The country of 95 million people has confirmed a total of 4,359 cases, including 1,320 local transmissions since April 27.

At least eight hospitals in Vietnam have locked down since May 5 because of the virus. In a bid to divert responsibility, the Vietnamese government has blamed allegedly lax observation of quarantine by people arriving from China, India and Japan.

* On Monday, Indonesia recorded 4,295 new cases and 212 deaths. Detected cases had plateaued at around 5,000 a day, but now a sharp rise is feared after an estimated 1.5 million people left Jakarta alone in May to return to their home villages for Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim holiday.

With more than 1.7 million confirmed cases and 48,000 deaths since the pandemic began, Indonesia has been the worst-hit country in Southeast Asia. Some health experts have warned an Indian scenario is possible. Low testing and contact tracing, and a positivity rate consistently above 10 percent point to wider infections.

* The Philippines on Monday reported 5,979 fresh cases of COVID-19, pushing the country’s total to 1,149,925, and 72 fatalities, bringing the death toll to 19,262. The new cases included the B.1.617 variant.

The Philippines suffered a surge in March, when new cases reached 10,000 a day. A limited lockdown brought that down by about half, but the proportion of tests coming back positive is still 15 percent, suggesting that many cases are escaping detection.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s government says it is pushing to vaccinate at least 50 million people this year to achieve “herd immunity” against COVID-19. As of May 15, however, the government had fully vaccinated only 714,432 individuals.

* How fast the pandemic can resurge can be seen in Singapore. Last month, Bloomberg gave Singapore a gold star for pandemic management, ranking it in top spot ahead of New Zealand and Australia. It seemed to have mostly suppressed earlier clusters among migrant workers. Within a week, however, dozens of infections were revealed at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, the airport and port.

Over the past month, according to the government, Singapore has imported 271 COVID-19 cases from south Asia, with some infected with the B.1.617 strain. On Monday Singapore reported a total of 28 infections, including new B.1.617 cases. Four more cases were linked to the Changi Airport Terminal 3 cluster, currently the biggest outbreak, taking it to 78 people.

Last Friday the government reduced social gatherings, banned restaurant dining and reinstituted working from home for office workers. On Sunday Singapore’s Education Minister Chan Chun Sing said the government would start vaccinating children younger than 16, after pupils at seven schools had to go back to home learning because 10 children tested positive.

Stocks fell on the Singapore Exchange on Friday as investors reacted to the introduction of even the limited mobility restrictions. Singapore Airlines shares closed down 5.7 percent, providing a glimpse of the hostility of the financial elite to any measures that impact on profits.

* Taiwan, also touted by the corporate media as a success story, reported 335 new cases on Monday—a record single-day rise—after earlier confirming about 2,000 infections and 12 deaths since the start of the pandemic. In response, the authorities imposed limited safety measures, closing bars, clubs and gyms, and restricting indoor gatherings in Taipei and the surrounding New Taipei City. The island has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the world, with less than 1 percent of its 23 million-strong population inoculated.

Most of the governments in these countries acted early last year to close borders, impose quarantine measures and trace the contacts of infected people, based on lessons from the SARS epidemic of 2003-04. These measures were helped by the fact that people widely complied with mask-wearing requirements.

Now, however, the arrival of new COVID-19 strains is threatening to expose their populations to new pandemic waves. The drive by all these governments to reopen borders and lift restrictions while their populations are unvaccinated has resulted in the predictable and possibly deadly surge of the virus.

This underscores the global character of the public health crisis and the necessity for the working class everywhere to unify its struggles, across national borders, and take control of the situation out of the hands of the ruling capitalist classes that have allowed this disaster to persist and intensify worldwide.

Opposition erupts in Japan against the Tokyo Olympics

Emily Ochiai & Itsuki Tanno

It has been over a year since Japan proclaimed its first one-month state of emergency back in April 2020. There have been many outbreaks throughout this year as a direct result of the non-existent COVID-19 mitigation measures by the government of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his successor Yoshihide Suga.

For the entire year of the global pandemic, the Abe and Suga governments focused on downplaying the pandemic, doing everything in their power to ensure the Summer Tokyo Olympics will be held this year in July. This includes covering up the realities in the country's hospitals.

A nurse protests being sent to the Tokyo Olympics holding a sign that says: “We are not expendable pawns. (Source: Twitter/Irouren)

There have been sharp increases in infections in the city of Osaka with a record of 1,262 cases in a single day. Osaka is in a healthcare crisis, with hospitals running over capacity with more than 17,000 COVID patients waiting at home to access care. There are increasing numbers of patients having to wait several hours in an ambulance before they can be admitted into a hospital. The longest wait reported was two whole days.

Despite minimal testing, 12,002,383 people have tested positive (around a tenth of the total population) with a positivity rate of 7 percent. Japan’s official cumulative number of deaths from COVID-19 is 11,200 and the number of confirmed cases is at 659,987. However, there is every reason to believe these figures are seriously under reported. Hospital beds are in short supply nationally and the number of COVID-19 patients recuperating at home topped 28,823 as of May 5.

Yet Japan still plans to proceed with the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games. Last month, the Tokyo Olympics Organizers requested the Japanese Nursing Association to dispatch 500 nurses as medical staff to assist the Games.

This sparked immediate mass opposition among nurses. An online demonstration was initiated with the hashtag ＃看護師の五輪派遣は困ります (meaning “Dispatching nurses to the Olympics games cannot be done”) with more than 250,000 tweets over the course of four days.

Tweets included: “We are desperately saving patients and assisting the Olympics Games is out of question”; “If a dispatch is possible they should be dispatched to hospitals”; and “Healthcare should be prioritized over the Olympic Games.”

One declared: “This is an emergency, a life-or-death situation. We don’t have enough instructors and we cannot educate newly hired nurses. If we want to prevent nurses from leaving their job, better treatment for the nurses and publicly funded mass PCR tests will be needed.”

A physician tweeted: “The first requirement in a hospital is that it should do the sick no harm. The current government is only doing harm to the people”.

Another tweet declared: “I am a nurse. When the pandemic started, I was working in the ward and I was terrified not only for myself but also for my family for the risk of exposing them… I would work for hours and hours wearing a protective suit, lightheaded from the heat. Whenever there was an outbreak in the hospital, I would be terrified thinking I could be next and that I could lose my life. I would be full of regret and sorrow for all the patients who passed away. With all my feelings of fear and sorrow, I am doing my best to withstand them. And this is not for the Olympics. Under this situation, there is no way I can support the Olympics. It has been over a year. But it is not ending yet and I do not see the end… What is it that this country is trying to protect? Please choose to protect lives.”

In addition to the initial request for 500 nurses, it was revealed that Olympics organizers estimate they will need a total of 10,000 medical staff for the games and plan to have them work without compensation, with the exception of a few officials. In response to widespread opposition, organizers now claim they are considering compensation for medical staff.

In what amounted to a threat, Prime Minister Suga told the media: “I am aware that those opinions (criticisms) exist. We would like to try our best so that there is no trouble.” He claimed that many nurses in the Japanese Nursing Association were taking time off, adding that it should be possible to supply nursing staff for the Olympics.

Suga’s response underscores the government’s determination to minimize and downplay the impact of the pandemic to ensure the economy remains open and the Olympics proceed as planned.

Testing has been made difficult and costly, with the cost of a test ranging between $US180 to $400, mostly borne by the individual. Access to tests through nationalized healthcare is discouraged unless the symptoms exactly match the Ministry of Health’s guidelines. A number of people denied access to PCR testing were later revealed to be COVID-19 positive, after dying at home.

The lack of restrictions was highlighted by the government’s “Go Travel’ campaign to promote domestic travel and boost the economy last October even as global COVID cases were on the rise. The campaign was suspended at the end of December 2020 after domestic COVID cases accelerated.

In April, however, Liberal Democratic Party secretary general, Toshihiro Nikai, insisted that Japan needed to resume the campaign because of its “positive economic effects.” He brushed aside concerns that the campaign could spread the virus, stating: “If you’re afraid, you won’t be able to do anything. If everyone stays at home and closes the door, then the Japanese economy will stop”.

Opposition continues to emerge to the government’s prioritization of profits over health and lives, particularly over the Olympics. In addition to the nurses, there have been protests on social media and on the streets saying, “Stop the homicidal Olympics immediately! Human lives are more important than the Olympics”.

The Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association, with more than 6,000 members, wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Suga calling for the Olympics to be cancelled. The letter stated that with the country’s fourth wave of infections spiking they are “facing difficult situations and cannot afford to conduct (the Olympics)”.

Amid a spike in cases of heatstroke expected in July, the physicians warned it will be difficult to differentiate between COVID-19 and heat stroke. As a result, hospitals would need to isolate patients individually to make an assessment, further stretching resources. Healthcare workers are “completely over capacity and they cannot afford to deploy resources, facilities, nor workforce for the games… We believe that the right decision is to cancel the event that has the possibility of increasing infection and deaths.”

As Indian variant spreads in Europe, governments reopen across the continent

Will Morrow

While scientists warn of the dangerous implications of the spread of the more contagious Indian variant of the coronavirus, governments across Europe are pushing ahead rapidly to reopen their economies fully and lifting any limited lockdown measures that have remained in place.

The reopening is taking place amid a competition among the European states over which economy can most quickly restart, and particularly over access to tourism revenue for the Summer holiday season.

The B.1.617 variant, first identified in India, may be up to 50 percent more contagious than even the so-called UK variant, according to a UK government advisory committee, though further studies are required.  The B.1.17 variant had first been identified in the UK in September, but has since rapidly become the dominant strain and makes up the majority of cases across Europe. In the UK, the number of identified cases of the Indian variant has rapidly accelerated in the past 10 days to more than 2,300.

By Tuesday, it had reached 2,300 in the UK, a rise of 75 percent from four days earlier. The strain now accounts for at least 20 percent of new infections, and scientists predict that it will become the dominant strain within days. However, yesterday the government admitted that the official count of cases of the new strain was already outdated by a week. The Johnson government’s own scientific advisors have made statements warning against the ending of lockdown measures that it is pushing through.

The reopening in Europe, under conditions where only a small portion of the population has been vaccinated, poses clear dangers of a new catastrophic overwhelming of hospitals and mass deaths. It is being pursued as part of the European Union’s policy of placing corporate profits before lives, with case numbers already too high for any systematic testing, tracing and isolation system to be put in place.

In France, cafes and restaurants opened for outdoor dining yesterday. Theaters, museums, public monuments and cinemas also reopened. The nightly curfew was pushed back from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Indoor and outdoor physical sports, except for contact sports, are again legally permitted. On June 9, restaurants are to reopen completely.

Only slightly over 13 percent of the French population has been vaccinated, compared to scientific estimates that, to prevent the virus’ spread, a population immunity rate of between 80-90 percent would be required. The Indian variant has already been detected in France, though the number of daily cases remains unknown. More than 17,000 cases were reported on Tuesday in the country, while the seven-day average for deaths remains at almost 200.

Schools in France have been completely reopened to in-person classes at full capacity. The Macron government is not making any attempt to justify this decision on a scientific basis. On April 23, for example, Prime Minister Jean Castex had asserted in an interview that “the virus circulates very little in schools” and that “schools are not the principal location for contaminations.”

On May 11, however, in an interview with France 2, Castex stated the opposite: “What does locking down mean? Let’s be concrete. It means closing schools. This is the essential variable—which has the most impact, we know, is closing schools.” This policy has been rejected, however, because it would require allowing parents to remain at home and providing them with compensation to not attend work.

In neighbouring Germany, only 11.9 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, and 38.2 percent has received a single dose. According to the Robert Koch Institute, five percent of those aged under 59 have been fully vaccinated, and one in three people aged over 80 has not been vaccinated. The Indian variant is responsible already for two percent of all new infections in the country, though even this figure is already likely an underestimate. Officials in the region of Mettmann quarantined residents in a pair of high-rise buildings in the town of Velbert on Tuesday, after several cases of the Indian variant were detected there.

However the various German state regions are outdoing each other in their reopening policies. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the largest state by population, schools are being reopened to full attendance on May 31, assuming that the seven-day incidence rate in the state per 100,000 people is below 100. In Berlin, which is governed by a coalition of the Left Party, SPD and the Greens, schools have been opened to all children since the beginning of this week. In Schleswig-Holstein, indoor and outdoor cafes and restaurants have been open again since Monday. Other federal states will follow in the next few days.

In Spain, the six-month national state of emergency ended on May 9, ending even the limited restrictions on travel between regions and late-night curfews. Last month, David López-Acuña, a former official for the World Health Organization, opposed the ending of the restrictions, warning that “we don’t see that the vaccination drive will have a significant impact by May. There may be less pressure on the health system, but the reality is health authorities are trusting too much that the immunization drive can stop the waves.”

In Italy, restrictions were lifted on April 26, permitting outdoor dining in bars, restaurants and cafes, the reopening of swimming pools and sports, cinemas and theatres, and the return to in-person schooling for all students.

In Belgium, outdoor dining in bars and cafes has been restarted since May 8, along with sporting facilities. In mid-April, schools in the country were reopened, while hairdressers and non-essential stores were reopened on April 26.

In Switzerland, music venues, sports, museums, libraries, outdoor cafes and restaurants, and cinemas have all been opened since April 19. Similarly in the Netherlands, outdoor dining was reopened on April 18, with hours restricted to between midday and 6pm.

The reckless reopening policy of European governments raises very grave dangers to the working population on the continent. It is being driven by their determination to prevent any further restriction in business activities and corporate profit-making, regardless of the impact on the lives of the population. It was summed up openly by French President Emmanuel Macron, who declared that the population must “live with the virus,” and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who demanded last year in a leaked private cabinet meeting “no more fucking lockdowns—let the bodies pile high in their thousands.”

Rumors of Cryptocurrency’s Death Are Still Greatly Exaggerated

Thomas L. Knapp

Elon Musk is a man of many skills. He didn’t just make electric cars sexy, he sent one to space. Perhaps chief among his talents is the ability to roil markets by running his mouth. Lately, he’s aimed that talent at cryptocurrency.

In February, one of Musk’s companies, Tesla, announced that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin; in March, that it would accept Bitcoin for purchases of its cars.

Then, in Mid-May, Musk announced that Tesla was suspending vehicle purchases in Bitcoin over “increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions” (while mentioning that “we are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of Bitcoin’s energy/transaction”).

Naturally, the price of Bitcoin in dollars crashed — back to the terrible old level of February, only twice what it was worth in December.

And, naturally, the cryptocurrency naysayer chorus emerged from its groundhog hole to yell “told ya so.” Just like they’ve been doing every other week since May 22, 2010, when Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 Bitcoins (current value, nearly half a billion dollars) for two pizzas.

Sorry, guys. Bitcoin’s probably not going away, and cryptocurrency in general certainly isn’t.

Yes, Bitcoin mining (the computer activity involved in processing transactions) is energy-intensive.

No, not all Bitcoin is mined using fossil fuels. In fact, many serious mining outfits specifically look for locations with cheap, plentiful hydroelectric power.

And no, not all cryptocurrency mining is nearly as energy-intensive as Bitcoin mining.

So, what’s Musk up to? Is he just having fun upsetting apple carts? Or is there business method behind his madness?

Financier (and former Trump White House Communications Director) Anthony Scaramucci thinks he knows. Scaramucci suggests (with a small hypothetical wager of 1/200th of a Bitcoin) that Musk’s next big cryptocurrency play will be to send Tesla’s energy subsidiary into “super clean” Bitcoin mining.

That would be a smart move from both directions. It would reduce the financial and environmental costs of mining, while giving solar and wind power a boost in their fight to displace fossil fuels generally.

The technology underlying cryptocurrency is sound. It will survive, and it will become dominant. The only question is whether it will completely displace, or be at least partially co-opted by, government monetary schemes. Hopefully the former. Getting government out of the money business would be a gigantic leap for human freedom and prosperity (and, maybe even a step toward getting government out of business entirely).

A Syndicalist Strategy for the Swedish Labour Market

Jenny Stendahl, Erik Bonk & Rasmus Hästbacka

In 2019, a new anti-strike law was introduced in Sweden. The law is negative for all employees but has its tip of the spear aimed at the Dockers Union (Hamnarbetarförbundet, Hamn) and the syndicalist union SAC, Central organization of Workers in Sweden.

Has the law killed SAC? “No. We have produced a comprehensive inquiry in which a new strategy is presented. According to our assessment syndicalists can still fight lawfully for both collective agreements and alternatives to such agreements.” These are the words of SAC representatives Jenny Stendahl, Erik Bonk and Rasmus Hästbacka.

It is often claimed that Sweden has the world’s strongest trade union movement. Perhaps the trade union bureaucracies are strong, but the movement and struggle have long been in decline. In Sweden, there are only two nationwide unions that take member democracy seriously: the syndicalist SAC and the Dockers union (Hamn). For SAC and Hamn, it is self-evident that the member base should have the right to make decisions about union demands, industrial action and agreements with the employer side.

We see within the dominant unions of LO, TCO and Saco that there are scattered islands of grassroots that try to develop union democracy and offer employers resistance. These honorable islands are constantly being fought by the trade union bureaucracy. Too often, the bureaucracy wins. There is no such bureaucracy within SAC or Hamn.

The Swedish trade unions can boast of high membership numbers, but generally lack the primary source of union strength: that many colleagues unite and act together. Without strong unions, employers can run amok. Not entirely surprising, the Swedish labour market is starting to go crazy.

It is estimated that over 770 Swedes die from work-related stress each year. More and more employees work under miserable conditions, not only on the fringes of the labour market and for companies that don’t have collective agreements. SAC’s safety representatives and migrant members testify to miserable conditions under respected companies with collective agreements. Many employers sign agreements only for the sake of building a facade, agreements which they then violate. Swedish syndicalists put a lot of effort into defending collective agreements that have actually been reached by other unions.

The independent labour struggle that SAC and Hamn practice cannot be controlled by the employer side. Nor can it be controlled by the Swedish Parliament or union leaders within LO, TCO and Saco. Consequently, these ruling elites united in 2019 and introduced a new anti-strike law. The so-called industrial peace obligation in the Swedish Co-determination Act (Medbestämmandelagen, MBL) was drastically expanded. Peace obligation means a ban on strikes, blockades and other forms of industrial action. The expanded peace obligation is negative for all employees but has its tip of the spear aimed at SAC and Hamn.

At first glance, it might look like the 2019 anti-strike law would reduce SAC and Hamn to meaningless organizations. Previously, SAC and Hamn were free to stage industrial actions against employers who had entered into collective agreements with other unions. We could refuse to accept lousy agreements and retain the right to industrial action in full. That is no longer the case.

We are affected by the expanded peace obligation as soon as other unions reach collective agreements, even when the agreements are so bad that it’s impossible for us to accept them. We are prohibited from launching industrial action against employers bound by collective agreements – unless the purpose of the action is to reach an additional collective agreement. This is the main rule (in the new section 41 d of MBL).

In the Swedish ports, the employer side traditionally has nationwide collective agreements with the LO union Transportarbetarförbundet, not with the Dockers union. Did the 2019 anti-strike law kill Hamn? No. In the same year, this union entered into its own national agreement with the employer side for the first time. Hamn was strengthened by this conflict and continues to strive and organize. It was the employer side that in all previous years had refused to sign national agreements, not Hamn.

Has SAC given up? No. We have produced a comprehensive inquiry in which a new strategy is presented. According to our assessment syndicalists can still fight lawfully for both collective agreements and alternatives to such agreements. We will train the membership in this strategy in order to build collective strength in the workplaces and push forward. The important thing is to create a better workplace for all employees, regardless of profession or union affiliation.

The key actors in our new strategy are all syndicalists who organize their workplaces. Syndicalists build so-called workplace sections, local unions for all employees except the bosses. Syndicalists also build cross-union forums and groups to unite the work force.

Without revealing too much to the employers reading this article, we will explain what the new strategy is all about.

What happens if a syndicalist section concludes collective agreements that contain better wages and terms of employment than the collective agreements that other unions have already concluded? In Swedish case-law, the key term used here is competing collective agreements, where the section becomes a party to the so-called second agreement. According to the Swedish Labour Court, the employer is only obliged to apply the wage and employment conditions in the first signed collective agreement, the so-called first agreement. Thus, the employer can ignore the section’s second agreement. That’s the main rule.

So, how can ordinary workers navigate this tricky legal arena? There are roughly three lines of action.

(1) The first line of action is that the section fights for a collective agreement which does not regulate the terms of employment, but which contain union rights for the section and its elected representatives. Some examples of such rights are the right to appoint safety representatives, do union work during paid working hours and a strengthened right to information and collective bargaining. The employer is obliged to respect such rights even in a second agreement.

(2) The second line of action is that the section nevertheless enters into collective agreements that contain better wages and employment conditions than a first agreement. When the first agreement expires, the employer will probably be obliged to apply the section’s agreement instead, which the entire work force benefits from. Then other unions have to accept that the syndicalists suddenly own the first agreement. Syndicalists can abandon this position if the other unions succeed in concluding collective agreements that give staff even better conditions. Syndicalists are also open to cross-union cooperation and multi-party agreements.

If a section stages industrial action for a better collective agreement than the already existing agreement, then the employer will resist strongly. The employer will probably claim that the purpose of the action is to displace the first agreement, which will make the action unlawful. To prevent such objections, the section may write in its proposed agreement that the section’s agreement shall not be applied until the first agreement has expired. Then the Labor Court would probably regard the industrial action as lawful.

Collective agreements are nothing new for SAC. During the 20th century, Swedish syndicalists entered into hundreds of collective agreements, primarily local agreements but also nationwide agreements in forestry. Syndicalists are therefore happy to enter into collective agreements, provided that the employees concerned decide whether to accept or reject the proposed agreements.

(3) If the employer side refuses to enter into a collective agreement with us, we are open to alternative forms of agreement. That is the third line of action. In SAC’s strategic inquiry, we discuss several alternatives to collective agreements, including oral agreements and written individual agreements. Oral agreements can be used to strengthen trade union rights. An audio recording of oral agreements prevents disputes about the content of the agreement. Written individual agreements can be used to improve wages and terms of employment for all employees in a workplace, provided that all agreements are identical and signed by all.

Collective agreements are accompanied by the most comprehensive peace obligation (according to the old section 41 of MBL). During the period of an applicable agreement, almost all industrial actions are prohibited. A major advantage, of the just mentioned alternative to collective agreements, is that these agreements do not activate a peace obligation. Employers who disapprove of this, may politly accept to enter into collective agreements with syndicalist sections.

Members of SAC can read all about the new strategy by logging in to SAC’s website. There we post video lectures, articles and new experiences. We believe that the strategy can also be used against employers who use so-called collective agreement shopping and yellow unions. These problems risk growing due to the expanded peace obligation in MBL.

The new strategy is sharp but not a quick fix. It all depends on the patient organizing efforts of union members.

How Hindutva works?

Bhabani Shankar Nayak

In recent years, the Hindutva politics has caused long term damage to India and Indians. The so called 56-inch macho PM, the propaganda master manufactures and survives all political crisis including the current mismanagement of the Coronavirus pandemic in India. In spite of deaths and destitutions, the social, cultural, economic and religious base of Hindutva is intact. There are only few scratches in the electoral fortune of the BJP in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is time to move away from the analysis based on the personalities of the leaders like Modi and Amit Shah. It is time to blame both the faulty products like Modi and Shah and expose their bigoted manufacturing firm called the RSS. The rule of BJP led by Modi is based on the ideological frameworks of the RSS, developed from 1920s to 2021 provides conclusive proof that the primitive ideology of Hindutva has destroyed the social fabric, economic foundations, religious harmony and multicultural outlooks of India and Indians. During the Modi led BJP regime, India contributed nearly 60% to the rise of global poverty. It speaks volumes about the failure of BJP government in India. Hindutva politics is neither an option nor an alternative for a modern, progressive, democratic, developed and peaceful India. There is no ambiguity about it.

However, BJP’s victory in recently concluded Assam state election, and securing a very large percentage of votes in both Assembly and parliamentary bypolls in different parts of India is a worrying sign for Indians. The Hindutva politics continue to be a dominant force in Indian politics. Therefore, there are two fundamental questions needs serious discussion.  1. How did Hindutva politics and its myopic leadership managed to convince the electorate to vote for them? 2. How Hindutva works? These two questions needs to critically reflect on the core ideological foundations and social base of Hindutva politics.

The riots and assaults on reasons led by Hindutva from Gujarat to New Delhi, ruinous economic and agricultural policies from demonetisation, GST to firm bills, the anti-constitutional citizenship amendment act, the demolition project called ‘Central Vista’ and the utter failure to manage the Coronavirus crisis are some of the milestones in the Hindutva misgovernance. These avoidable and annihilating crises did not disturb the ideological, social and political base of Hindutva forces in India. The pathology of the toxic Hindutva politics and its violent projects based illusory capitalist economic growth and development can be defeated only by defeating its reactionary ideological foundations in society, politics, economy and culture. The political oppositions and its fatigue of electoral defeats are only strengthening the Hindutva politics. It is time to change the direction against Hindutva politics and fight its core ideological roots.

The Brahminical social and cultural order, majoritarian dominance, anti-Muslim and religious minorities, anti-Dalit, anti-women cultural propaganda, anti-working class politics and capitalist corporate command economic system are seven pillars of Hindutva politics in India. The pandemic and all other crises did not disturb these core ideological foundations of Hindutva politics. The struggle for a secular, progressive, egalitarian, liberal and democratic India depends on people’s ability to defeat caste, religious bigotry and market fundamentalism promoted by capitalism. Hindutva politics works by using these three core value systems which are disastrous for India and Indians. The Hindutva politics is not an illusory project. It is a serious project of national, international and regional capitalist classes.

The Hindutva politics has penetrated into every step of social, cultural, religious, economic and political walks of lives in India with its organisational networks the RSS supported by Indian and global corporates. All constitutional institutions are captured by people with the RSS networks. Most of the schools, colleges, universities, cultural and social organisations are directly or indirectly controlled by the RSS today. The majority of media organisations have surrendered their professional ethics and sold their freedom to the Hindutva advertisement revenue. The power of money, media, political marketing and organisational electoral machine makes Hindutva politics as one of the most formidable and dominant force in India. These combined forces make every Hindutva abnormality and inhuman activities as natural and normal. Social depression, political despondency and acute economic crises are the tree net outcomes of Hindutva politics, which create foundation for Hindutva fascism in India. Deaths and destitutions don’t disturb Hindutva ideology. Therefore, morality is alien to Hindutva ideology.

In this difficult terrain, India and Indians need radical politics addressing everyday social, cultural, economic and spiritual needs of people. The need based political struggle intertwined with desires and unwavering commitment to re-establish values enshrined in Indian constitution can revive Indian path to peace and progress by defeating Hindutva core ideology, which is based on caste and capitalism. The struggle against Hindutva is a struggle against caste and capitalism. It is impossible to defeat Hindutva without defeating caste and capitalism. The caste system and capitalism are twin source of oxygen for Hindutva forces. India needs a radical mass movement to end caste and gender based on economic exploitation, and social, cultural and spiritual oppression.

There is no capitalism, caste and Hindutva with a human face. These forces and their ideology can never be reformed and recycled. The vulgar reality show of Hindutva fascism and its caste-based capitalism is neither conducive for human lives nor for the planet. India and Indians need global support and solidarity movements to re-establish liberal, secular and constitutional democracy in India. The mass movement for social and political transformation is an urgent need of the hour for the survival of India and Indians. The Coronavirus pandemic is an occasion to end the pandemic of Hindutva and all its ideological and institutional infrastructure in India to safeguard its present and future.

Virgin Australia unions plan merger to impose Bain Capital’s cost-cutting demands

Terry Cook

The Virgin Independent Pilots Association (VIPA) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU) confirmed this month that they will amalgamate the two unions by July, subject to a vote of pilots.

Both unions have been talking up the supposed benefits for pilots and other Virgin Australia workers of the merger, but it has nothing to do with defending the jobs and conditions of airline workers.

Its real purpose is to strengthen the capacity of the union bureaucracy to prevent any opposition to the ongoing restructuring drive by Virgin to drastically slash costs at workers’ expense. This has been the agenda implemented from day one by the airline’s new owners, US private equity firm Bain Capital.

Virgin Australia Airbus A320 at Christmas Island International Airport [Source: Wikimedia Commons]

Speaking to the media, VIPA president John Lyons declared the merger “will help boost the voice of pilots and give us added strength across the industry.” TWU national secretary Michael Kaine claimed it “will give our members a stronger voice not just in Virgin but across the aviation landscape.” Kaine insisted that “both unions are focused on lifting standards in aviation and using our collective strength to achieve that.”

The record of the unions shows the fraud of this pretence.

Virgin went into administration in March 2020, owing banks and other creditors more than $6.8 billion. Immediately after Bain’s $3.5 billion buyout of Virgin was finalised last November, the airline slashed 3,000 jobs and ditched its carrier’s low-cost airline TigerAir at the cost of hundreds of jobs. All 220 pilot positions at TigerAir had already been shed.

Kaine welcomed this ruthless restructure, saying Bain’s plan “to restart Virgin Australia” as a “leaner” operation offered a “glimmer of hope” for the future. Other unions covering Virgin’s workforce made similar statements.

Their purpose was to telegraph the unions’ willingness to collaborate with Bain in further cost-cutting, starting with the closed-door negotiations for four new enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs) that began late last year.

Virgin’s CEO Jayne Hrdlicka, installed by Bain, praised the unions for delivering on the company’s demands. “We’ve asked a lot of them [the unions] as a result of the operating environment we find ourselves in, and we are grateful for their understanding and support throughout,” she said.

The TWU, along with the FAAA (Flight Attendants Association of Australia), ASU (Australian Services Union) and ALAEA (Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association) then got to work to ensure their members endorsed the “in-principle” wage-cutting deals they had already signed. The EBAs cover cabin crew, baggage handlers, ramp workers, cleaners, caterers, refuelers and security workers

The three-year agreements centre on 18-month to two-year pay freezes, and stays on the payment of a range of other allowances. They involve deep cuts to real pay and conditions, including for flight attendants, ground staff and other low-paid workers.

Under the ASU deal, for example, the highest pay rate for the most experienced and most qualified guest service workers remained at the base rate of just $27.27 an hour, while “trainees” were stuck at $22.22 and new recruits unable to rise above $24.64. Only 18 percent of the workforce must be full-time, leaving the vast majority on part-time work, and only guaranteed a minimum of 20 hours a week.

The unions claimed the EBAs provided guarantees that no more of Virgin’s roughly 6,000-strong workforce, covered by the four unions, would be outsourced “in the meantime.”

In reality, the unions, anticipating rank-and-file opposition, cynically utilised the company’s threat that Virgin workers would face deeper job cuts via outsourcing unless they accepted the wage freeze deals. On that basis, they pushed through endorsement of the EBAs in membership ballots last month.

Moreover, the outsourcing “guarantee” is worthless. It could quickly be jettisoned by Virgin under conditions where competitors such as Qantas continue to exploit the crisis in the aviation sector produced by COVID-19 to further restructure their operations to boost profits and gain a competitive edge.

Since the outset of the pandemic, Qantas has laid off around 8,500 employees or close to a third of its workforce. The company is now outsourcing over 2,000 positions, including baggage handlers, ramp workers and cabin cleaners.

The TWU blocked any fight by workers against the Qantas outsourcing, instead pushing the issue into the Federal Court and burying it in a Senate inquiry. These moves were initiated after the TWU failed to convince Qantas to employ the union itself as the cheap labour contractor for the outsourcing operation.

Cut-throat competition will only intensify if the airlines in Australia and internationally are successful in their bids to pressure governments to abandon restrictions and prematurely fully reopen global air travel. That will see the further continuous setting of ever-more exploitative benchmarks across the worldwide aviation industry.

To soften up Virgin workers for more job cuts overseen by the unions, Kaine warned: “Virgin’s future is far from certain with the pandemic continuing to play havoc with air travel and the disastrous vaccine rollout casting doubt on the resumption of normal travel into and around Australia.”

In a groveling display of unity with Bain, Kaine presented the unions’ sell-out deals and the management’s attacks on jobs and working conditions as the outcome of the “tireless work” of Virgin staff to “get the airline back on its feet.” This is in line with the program pursued by all the trade unions: subordinating workers’ interests to those of the wealthy corporate elite.

Kaine said workers would hold Virgin’s new owners “to account over promises made to keep a full-service airline” and to get “Virgin back to its position as Australia’s strong second airline.”

Similar threats of job losses will be used by the unions to impose a regressive deal on Virgin’s pilots, and on workers at other airlines. Eager to further prove the unions’ worth to Bain as a reliable industrial police force, Kaine urged Virgin “to finalise this process [EBA negotiations],” claiming this would “give pilots the certainty they require about their futures.”

Virgin and Qantas have continued to slash jobs and conditions despite receiving repeated multi-billion-dollar support packages and wage subsidies from the Liberal-National government, backed by the Labor Party opposition.

Around the globe, airlines have axed tens of thousands of jobs over the past year, despite similar massive bailouts by governments, while the unions have suppressed workers’ opposition.

Airline workers must take stock of the situation that they face. The record demonstrates that the fight to defend and improve jobs and working conditions requires a decisive break with the unions, which act as direct agencies of the airline companies.