Why Europe may suffer more strikes, political tensions

STORY: France is living through another period of street protests and widespread strikes - in particular against President Emmanuel Macron's plan to raise the retirement age.

Planes, trains and buses came to a standstill, as Germany endured its largest day in decades of industrial action in March.

Higher food and energy prices have contributed to rampant inflation and continue to dent living standards in Europe, as elsewhere.

Most especially for the lowest paid, according to Gregory Claeys from the Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel.

"If you're poor, generally the inflation that you face, the level of inflation that you face is actually higher. Because you spend more of your money on things that have increased a lot like energy and food, etc."

The recent protests suggest many European workers have decided to fight to maintain their share of a shrinking economic pie.

Their governments are already dealing with a number of challenges, including ageing populations, tackling climate change, the Ukraine conflict and ending their over-reliance on Russian energy.

All that makes them less willing to grant hefty public sector pay increases.

But unions insist Europe still generates enough wealth to stop wages from sliding behind inflation.

Owen Tudor is deputy head of the International Trade Union Confederation based in Brussels.

"Wages are not keeping pace with either productivity or the cost of living, and so a number of workers are taking action. They're coming off the back of the pandemic. They're facing climate emergency and so on. So, there are a lot of concerns in the labor market at the moment that are facing working people."

Securing a solid pay rise has proved harder for workers in Europe than in the U.S., where post-lockdown labor shortages gave workers extra leverage.

Gregory Claeys from Bruegel again.

"And so it's more difficult, I don't know, for an Italian worker or Spanish worker or a Greek worker to ask for a wage raise when there is still like some, some unemployed people. While in the U.S., it's not the case. In the U.S. workers have increased their bargaining power. While this is not yet the case in Europe so it manifests itself through this social unrest."

The bump in European corporate profits and shareholder gains has also aggravated a sense of inequality.

Union advocates like Owen Tudor say Europe's besieged governments could easily rebalance things through what might be politically unpopular steps - like raising taxes for the wealthy.

"Governments still seem to be trapped in the ideology that they can't raise taxes significantly, and therefore they've imposed on themselves an artificial restriction on their ability to pay higher wages. And, and there is still a concern in some political circles about the level of public expenditure, the level of taxes, the level of public services. So, we're still seeing attempts to drive down the social wage. This in particular, for instance, in terms of France, is about the pension entitlements. France is a rich country and, as a result of the productivity gains over the last ten years, is easily able to maintain its pension arrangements at their current level without having to do what President Macron is attempting to do. And that doubles the anger among working people."

And that could mean more strikes in Germany, and protests and walkouts in France.