Billionaires and business at the Pilori on the occasion of May 1st

Gatherings estimated at tens of thousands of people in total took place in some 50 cities in Switzerland during May 1, to claim more rights for workers. Slogan of the day: “Solidarity rather than hatred, union is strength.”

(Keystone-ATS) “The workers are launching a clear signal against the rise of the extreme right and the neo-liberal elites which worldwide-in Switzerland also-head on the main social achievements of the last decades”, was indignant on Thursday the Swiss union union (USS).

The union center has mentioned in a press release “a counter-revolution of the big capital, which jeopardizes equality, labor rights and the social state”. Denouncing certain hate speeches, especially against minorities, she believes that “the economic elites always refuse more systematically to grant people who work their fair share of the riches created, even though the economy is doing well”.

Decrease in purchasing power

In the end, notes the USS, “the purchasing power decreases, the rents take the elevator, while the rich are always more enriched”. And to point the finger at the employers: “Under the pretext of a shortage of skilled labor, they demand at Cor and Cri the lengthening of working time, the increase in retirement age and the dismantling of labor law. »»

Nearly 15,000 people in Zurich

The USS claims the presence of 14,000 people to the largest event of the day, in Zurich. On this occasion, her vice-president and also president of Unia, Vania Alva, pleaded for “a multicultural and open Switzerland”, pinning in passing the UDC and its “exclusion policy”. She also denounced the persistence of wage inequalities in Switzerland. If we do not accelerate progress in the matter, “it will not be reached before 2070”, she fears.

Same tone in Locle (ne), where the manager of the construction sector of Unia, Nico Lutz, noted that money was poorly distributed in Switzerland. “There is no shortage of money in this country. But politicians are constantly creating new injustices. Tax gifts to the rich, large groups and large shareholders and savings programs on the back of the population. Increase in rents and health insurance premiums and decrease in real wages. »»

“Unscrupulous”, Ton P.-Y. Millard

On the trail (Joux/VD valley), the president of the USS and advisor to the States (PS) Pierre-Yves Maillard has toned: “The extreme right progresses with the complicity of the economic elites. However, it does not answer the problems of an unjust world, in which the billionaires are unscrupulous on the back of the population. »»

A close collaboration “with European progressive forces is central to guarantee the protection of wages,” said the central secretary of USS Daniel Lampart in Münchenbuchsee (BE). He also warned against an yes on the initiative of the UDC against Switzerland at 10 million inhabitants, which would lead to the end of bilateral agreements. ”

The trade unionists have more generally called for solidarity and “against exclusion speeches intended to divert attention. It is a question of “finding social solutions to the difficulties encountered daily by the population”, they insisted.