The year 2023 was marked by several significant labour disputes across Europe, even in countries with a traditionally ‘quiet’ industrial relations landscape. The main reason for industrial unrest was wages not keeping pace with the increasing cost of living. The most affected sectors were transport, education, health and social care, and manufacturing. Not all these disputes have been solved, with conflicts continuing in a number of countries. This article looks at significant labour disputes and industrial action across the EU27 and Norway in 2023 as mapped by the Network of Eurofound Correspondents.
While data on industrial action are scarce and fragmented (see, for example, ETUI’s Strike Map of Europe), the available data indicate that in the period before the COVID-19 pandemic there was a general decrease in industrial action across EU Member States, disrupted by a few intermittent spikes. 1 Some increase in industrial action was reported during the pandemic, 2, 3 especially in the sectors most affected. Due to the lack of comparable data for 2023, a clear trend in industrial action cannot be estimated. Nevertheless, in some countries, such as Austria 4and Germany, 5 the evidence shows that collective bargaining rounds were more conflictual in 2023 than in previous years. In France, the number of individual days not worked due to strikes increased by 71% compared with the previous year. In the Netherlands, the number of strikes in 2023 was the highest in 50 years. In Czechia, Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal and Sweden, qualitative assessment by Eurofound’s national correspondents also suggests more labour disputes. In Norway, the first strike since the World War II was recorded in the private sector. However, in other countries for which national data are available, such as Spain,the intensity of strikes and industrial action was lower.
Simmering discontent in transport and the public sector
The transport sector accounted for the highest number of significant cases of industrial action, with disputes reported in 20 countries (see the table below). The most prominent examples include protests by railway workers (in Greece after the Tempi train accident, in Germany at Deutsche Bahn and at Elron in Estonia) and in the aviation industry (employees of Brussels Airlines and Ryanair in Belgium and pilots employed by Air Malta and Norsk Luftambulanse in Norway).
The public sector in several Member States also experienced industrial action, with turbulent disputes among workers in healthcare (11 Member States), education (9 Member States) and public administration, including the police, army and judicial services (11 Member States). The common denominator of these protests was low wages compounded by high inflation and underinvestment in the sector.
Eleven countries reported significant industrial action organised by workers in the manufacturing sector. Platform delivery workers launched actions in Poland against the food-delivery platform Pyszne.pl and in Slovenia against the food-and-product-delivery platforms Wolt and Glovo.
Wages most common strike trigger
The most common subject of the reported labour disputes of national significance was wages, specifically wage failing to meet the higher cost of living due to inflation and higher prices. All Member States (except Denmark) and Norway saw wage-related industrial action (the table below provides details). Conflicts often arose when wage increases were not sufficient to keep up with inflation, with demands in some countries that the costs of inflation should be equally shared among employers and workers (for example, in Spain).
In Italy, a national general strike involving employees of all sectors, including managerial staff, took place in November 2023 primarily as a response to the Budget Law. Unions demanded wage increases to address the impact of inflation, particularly in sectors with a high share of involuntary part-time work, high seasonality and job insecurity, often dominated by female workers. In the Netherlands, the staff of thelargest trade union, the Federation of Dutch Trade Unions (FNV), went on strike for the first time in the union’s existence in its current form (since 2013), demanding automatic price compensation in the new collective labour agreement to cope with inflation. In Slovakia, workers in the retail bank UniCredit Bank secured an 8% wage increase after strike action.
Working conditions were the second most common subject of labour disputes. This category includes, for instance, demands to reduce class size in the education sector (Lithuania and Hungary), opposition to franchising that might undermine working conditions in the retail sector (Belgium)and cleaning services(Slovenia), and protests against rising work pressure due to low staffing in the aviation industry (Belgium) and fire protection services (Ireland). Several protests addressed pension reforms (France and Romania) and changes to legal regulations (such as the right to strike in Finland).
Other issues that triggered disputes include restrictions on industrial action and the rights of workers, staff shortages, and change in the workplace (such as restructuring). For instance, miners in Bulgaria organised a protest against the government’s territorial just transition plans submitted to the European Commission. This resulted in the approval of additional financial support for state-owned mines and postponement of the liberalisation of the energy market by one year to summer 2025. In Poland and Slovenia, platform workers went on strike for collective bargaining rights, organised by the newly formed Trade Union of Food Delivery Couriers.
Many large-scale or lengthy actions
The industrial action in several Member States was large scale in terms of the number of participants or duration. A series of strikes against pension reform in well-unionised sectors in France encompassed the public sector, oil refineries, waste collection, public transport and education. According to various estimates, the number of demonstrators on the streets reached a record high, with between 1.3 to 3.5 million people protesting at times. In Norway, 23,000 members of the Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) and 1,300 members of the Confederation of Vocational Unions (YS) held the first strike in the private sector since the World War II during a mid-term bargaining round, demanding increases in their purchasing power and higher wages for low-wage earners.
Cyprus experienced the first national general work stoppage in its history, organised by a coalition of several trade unions, after the negotiations on the Cost-of-Living Allowance agreement reached an impasse. Workers in Czechia, dissatisfied with the government’s economic policy, united under the umbrella of the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (ČMKOS), the largest trade union confederation in Czechia, and organised ‘A day of protests for a better future’ which ended up being the largest trade union demonstration of since 2013. In Finland, several strikes that started at the end of 2023 under the banner SeriousGrounds have continued in 2024 and are among the largest political strikes in the country’s history. They have disrupted road, railway and underground transport, closed day-care centres and harbours, and brought a large part of Finnish industry to a standstill.
In Croatia, an accumulation of issues in the judicial system led to the longest strike ever (two months duration) organised by court officials and state employees demanding a substantial wage increase. In Hungary, despite legislative changes in 2022 restricting the right to strike of certain occupations under rules requiring ‘adequate or minimum services’ to be maintained, a protest started in 2022 by teachers demanding better work conditions and higher wages continued in 2023 and into 2024.
Unusual suspects
Labour disputes occurred even in countries with a historical low incidence of industrial action (due to national social partnership systems that provide consensual ways of reconciling interests) such as Austria, Ireland and Luxembourg. In Austria, a protest week demanding capped prices for food, energy and housing took place in May, followed by a large demonstration organised by the Austrian Trade Union Confederation (ÖGB) in September under the slogan ‘Down with prices, up with wages’. In Luxembourg, a country that rarely experiences industrial action, the two strikes in education, health and social care, and in transport (air, road and railways) in 2023 had a national impact, prompting calls for the government to intervene as a mediator in one of them. In Ireland, the legacy of industrial peace in the country normally ensures low levels of industrial action; however, two notable strikes took place in 2023, both connected to insufficient public funding and low pay of workers. One took place in the community and voluntary sector, which is suffering a recruitment and retention crisis because of low pay, and the other among retained (part-time) firefighters in a local authority requesting better pay and working conditions.
From warning strikes to nation-wide demonstrations
Labour disputes took different forms across countries, with strikes being the most common type. Workers in several countries issued warning strikes, such as in Austria (health and education), Estonia (education and maritime transport), Hungary (manufacturing) and Lithuania (education). In Denmark, Norway and Sweden, employees engaged in sympathy strikes to support workers from other countries. The most salient example of this is the sympathy strike against Tesla organised by Danish trade union 3F in support of the Swedish IF Metall in December 2023. As a result, dock workers affiliated to 3F refused to transport Tesla cars to Sweden or help unload Tesla cars in Danish ports. Nationwide general strikes were also common in 2023. Among the most significant is the abovementioned French protests against pension reform, but events of a similar scale occurred in Cyprus (first national general strike), Czechia (large demonstration) and Italy (national general strike).
Mixed achievements
The demands related to the most disputed topic of 2023 – wage increases – have been addressed in most countries by means of inflation-compensation premiums, one-off payments, increases to the lowest salary scales or general wage increases. The scale of wage increases varied from 5.5% (in the air freight company Cargolux in Luxembourg) to 25% (in the education sector in Romania).In some cases where the social partners were able to work towards a common goal during the collective bargaining rounds, wage settlements reached record highs. However, no clear achievements on wage increases were reported for Belgium, Greece, Finland, France, Hungary Poland, Portugal and Slovenia.
Not all labour disputes were solved by the end of 2023. As noted above, the protest by teachers in Hungary yielded no results; instead, the government further restricted teachers’ rights to strike. A conflict in Estonia’s public sector from 2023 continued into early 2024 when an indefinite strike was announced.
Sympathy strikes in 2023 show that the social partners in Norway and Sweden – countries with a long-standing tradition of cooperation between the social partners – were not able to secure a collective bargaining agreement for the foreign workers and/or employers active in their countries. In several countries, despite their efforts, the social partners could not agree on a satisfying outcome for both parties, and additional intervention was required. In Luxembourg and Slovakia, following multiple rounds of negotiation between workers and management, the intervention of independent mediators was required. In Spain, collective labour disputes in the cleaning sector and the metallurgical industry, where the mobilisation capacity of unions is higher, required mediation of the regional or central governments. The only country that had no noteworthy industrial action was Denmark, apart from the sympathy strike with the Swedish unions on the Tesla case.
The events reported by Eurofound correspondents on labour disputes in Europe during 2023 provide a comprehensive overview and highlight the importance of this monitoring exercise in filling the data gaps on this topic. The information on industrial action in this article is based Eurofound’s annual reporting on working life in each of the 27 EU Member States and Norway. All the national working papers can be found at Developments in working life 2023.
