BERN, Switzerland (AP) -- More than 13,000 construction workers from across Switzerland took part in the nation's biggest strike in more than half a century Monday.þþ``It looks like a big success,'' said Vasco Pedrina, president of the SIB labor union. The unions called the one-day strike claiming employers had gone back on commitments to let construction workers take early retirement at age 60.þþIn Geneva, where about 3,800 workers joined the strike, nearly all building sites were silent. In the southern town of Biel, in the Italian-speaking part of the country, more than a thousand strikers demonstrated in the streets.þþThe strike started Sunday night when workers put down their tools on the site of a new rail tunnel through the Alps. It then spread through the country.þþUnion leaders said the strike was meant as a warning to employers. ``If this doesn't work, then we will strike again, only next time it will be even bigger,'' Pedrina said.þþAbout 93,000 people work in Switzerland's construction industry.þþEmployers claimed the strike was illegal and that unions threatened workers with fines and blockaded building sites to compel participation.þþ``This is not a real, voluntary strike,'' said Daniel Lehmann, director of the Swiss Construction Federation.þþIn March, construction employers agreed in principle to offer early retirement at 60 within three years. Unions, in return, abandoned some wage demands.þþIn September, however, the employers said they needed more time to introduce the new system.þþSwitzerland has had few national labor disputes since shortly after World War II, when a series of strikes led to a generous social safety net and new structures for negotiating pay and conditions.þ
Source: NY Times
