Catherwood LibraryILR School

A holdover from post-World War II Soviet Union influences, the Austrian Trade Union Federation not only created an umbrella labor organization which today represents over 1.4 million workers, it also led to over half a century of labor peace. The victory of a center-right government coalition in February 2000, however, brought to an end thirty years of cooperation between Socialist Party-led governments and the AFTU---and possibly an era of labor relations that saw productivity undisturbed by major industrial actions as well. With the enactment of a host of reforms injurious to workers, eighty-eight percent of union members responding in a recent vote supported a strike if negotiations with the government fall through.