Life is a construction site
By Katharina Kropshofer
*Translated from the original article published by falter.at
The Building and Wood Workers’ Trade Union of Austria (GBH) has formed an extraordinary alliance with climate activists. What do they want? A climate-friendly labour law.
The best friends are not the ones you see every day, but the ones with whom you plan class warfare.
One would rather expect the National Council member and chairman of the GBH, Josef Muchitsch at the regulars' table; and Teresa Tausch, one of the speakers from Fridays for Future Austria, at the plenary session for the next demonstration. Instead, the two of them sit side by side in the Falter editorial office on this November afternoon and say sentences like: "It's the most inhumane thing to make people work in these temperatures and under the blazing sun."
400,000 people in Austria work outdoors, as farmers, sports teachers or on construction sites. In addition to the noise, physical exertion, and the high risk of injury, a new burden has been added: the climate crisis. It is the reason why a red trade unionist, who represents one of the most emissions-heavy industries and whose party is particularly noticeable in Vienna with car-friendly policies, and a climate activist suddenly take vows of loyalty. How could this happen?
The heat radicalised the trade unionist. The trained bricklayer worked on construction himself for ten years. It was hard, but much more tolerable than today. And when he sat at a Chamber of Labour academy on a "social-ecological transformation" of society, he said activists should stick themselves in front of construction sites to draw attention to the difficult working conditions. At the other end of the room, their ears immediately perked up.
They exchanged numbers and met with activists from “System Change, not Climate Change!” and worked out demands. And now that the heat is only a faint memory, they pose together in press photos and threaten the government with occupations.
In 2013, the union implemented a heat regulation: From then on, heat was also considered bad weather for construction workers (as well as carpenters, plasterers, roofers and scaffolders) according to the Construction Workers' Bad Weather Compensation Act. When the shade temperature reached 35 degrees, they were allowed to go home. Six years later, when there were already 38 hot days, i.e. days with more than 30 degrees, the limit was lowered to 32.5 degrees. With the construction union's heat app, construction workers can check the temperature and then, if necessary, report it to the construction workers' holiday and severance payment fund BUAK. Because every construction worker gives them a share of their wages, they get 60 percent of the lost wages back.
But there is a catch: the companies do not have to send the workers home. And so it happens that only one in four people working in construction actually did this in the summer of 2023. Even though the money would be there for that. Specifically, in the summer of 2023, a total of 23,875 employees from 1,158 companies received 71,280 hours of heat-free time on 19 hot days. Three hours per employee.
What the new friends are now demanding is nothing less than a reform of the working time law, including a legal right for these heat-free days. Mandatory preventive examinations for non-melanoma skin cancer. And the priority of expanding public transport.
The construction industry itself is anything but a climate hero, as it is responsible for five to twelve percent of domestic emissions. But those who operate hammer drills and fill walls have contributed little themselves. "It's almost cynical that those who have to carry out these construction projects with high emissions feel the climate crisis the hardest," says Tausch. "Construction workers should not be given the choice: Do I build a city road now or do I become unemployed?"
It was precisely this city street that almost cost the two of them their friendship. In autumn 2021, the activists of the “Lobau remains” alliance set up their protest camps and thus blocked the construction of the gap closure of the (according to many traffic planners) oversized S1 expressway. At that time, the GBH advocated for the construction of the road. And when the police finally cleared the last camp in April 2022, they were also supported by construction workers.
Today, President Muchitsch makes it clear: "A Hainburg in the year 1984, where environmental protection activists and construction workers demonstrated against each other, will not happen again."
Fridays for Future seems to be looking for a new identity anyway: Corona has slowed down its most powerful tool, the global climate strikes. Voices to make the movement more diverse and social are louder than ever today. This means: also reaching out to those who are already feeling the consequences of the climate crisis more severely. The merger with the union was convenient for them.
As expected, only one group is not very enthusiastic about the new alliance: Those of the employers. This is not an issue for the construction companies, countered the guild master Michael Stvarnik. "If the union is demanding this, it seems to be just a political issue in order to be able to build up even more pressure during negotiations." Many building contractors fear that this will slow down construction projects. Muchitsch waves it off: From the project idea to the handover of the keys, 75 percent would go to planning, approvals and awards, and only 25 percent would go to processing. "It can't be that these 25 percent have to catch up on everything."
In any case, the new friends don't lack self-confidence. Tausch believes that we will soon no longer just be talking about a climate movement, but a new workers' movement. Does that mean that construction workers and “Fridays” will occupy construction sites together when the sun shines on the asphalt again? At least they have already gotten legal advice about it.