GPA president says Sunday opening would be declaration of war

GPA president Sallmutter:
Sunday opening would be declaration of war against unions

"If the large commerce chains would continue to press for a loss of Sunday rest, they would have to count with a massive resistance, which would stretch far beyond the trade union movement." Hans Sallmutter, president of UNI Commerce affiliate GPA, does not hold his fire when reacting to the repeated efforts by Ikea and other huge retailers to introduce Sunday opening.

Sallmutter says that only socially necessary functions should be performed on Sunday. "The unrestrained greed of the large commerce chains to get even more turnover at the cost of small entrepreneurs is not a reason to extend shop opening hours", he says.

Sunday opening would lead to not only shop workers, but also warehouse and transport workers having to work at weekends, Sallmutter reminds.

"The free time which people can spend together is a social value, which we have to protect in all situations. A society without rest, where only money and consumption count, can not be an aim for our society", says the GPA president.

Sallmutter denounces the repeated attempts by Ikea's Austrian country director Wendschlag to use Central and Eastern Europe as an example, supporting the efforts to trade on Sundays. "It cannot be the aim of European integration to import inhuman working conditions and low labour law standards, even if the advocates of a neo-liberal social model would wish this to happen."

"The trade unions concerned in these countries of Central and Eastern Europe turn to us increasingly often, complaining about the behaviour of multinational commerce enterprises and proposing to us joint strategies to combat this. Trading around the clock is absolutely not in line with the wishes and needs of the workers in these countries, and the majority of the consumers give the unions right."

"There is an urgent need to enact stronger legal norms and to restrict shop opening. GPA has therefore invited the Eastern European commerce trade unions to a conference in Vienna on 28 and 29 May, to jointly discuss approaches and strategies about how more human working conditions could be achieved in commerce in the transition countries", Sallmutter tells.