Achtung! Massive Worker Strike Shutting Down Germany

[Milchshake]

Workers in Germany’s transportation industries have basically shut down the country by going on strike.

Last year revealed that we have many transport sector experts. We going to need them to weigh in on this.
Key Questions:
Why is this happening? Why do workers in Europe also need to strike? Allegedly "everyone there is to the Left of Biden."
Will German political leadership side with workers and negoiate on their behalf?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68501755
Millions of travellers in Germany are facing severe disruption to transport services because of strikes by rail and airport staff.
A two-day strike by Lufthansa airline ground staff has coincided with a 35-hour strike by train drivers.
Rail operator Deutsche Bahn said only 20% of long-distance trains were running and Germany’s largest airport, Frankfurt, cancelled all departures.
The strikes are the latest in a wave of industrial action to hit Germany.
The walkouts are to do with separate disputes over pay and working conditions with national carrier, Lufthansa and state-owned rail operator, Deutsche Bahn.
Deutsche Bahn said it expected “massive disruptions” on Thursday and Friday.

As well as long-distance train journeys, regional services have also been affected since early Thursday, it said.
“Enough is enough. It’s a big nuisance and I can’t quite understand whether the demands, some of which are certainly justified, have to be enforced with such harsh means,” stranded train passenger, Walter Roehrer told APTN News in Berlin.

Flights have also been greatly reduced, with German airline Lufthansa saying earlier this week that about 1,000 flights per day would be cancelled, affecting about 200,000 air passengers.

Just 10% to 20% of its original schedule was expected to take off, with flights from Hamburg and Berlin airports also disrupted.

Actually turns out to be a fairly targetted strike. Will it be effective?


Also sounds like thier workers have basically similar demands that US rail, UPS, etc workers have. But in metric.

The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) is demanding a reduction in the working week from 38 to 35 hours, without a pay cut, which Deutsche Bahn has refused.
The rail operator has accused the union of refusing to compromise. Its spokesperson, Achim Stauss said: “The other side doesn’t budge a millimetre from its maximum position”.
But the head of GDL, Claus Weselsky, dismissed this accusation, telling Reuters news agency it was “unfair” that management salaries had risen by 14% with millions in bonuses, while workers had to contribute to the company’s recovery.

At Lufthansa, the Ver.di union – which represents some 25,000 airline ground staff – is demanding a 12.5% pay rise or at least €500 (£426)) more per month. The union also wants an inflation compensation bonus of €3,000.

The airline has offered to increase pay by 10%, after it announced on Thursday that its profits had doubled in 2023 to €1.67bn from €791m in 2022.

But Ver.di says it is not enough, and that ground staff are barely earning the minimum wage, despite Lufthansa boasting a high profit.

The union’s chief negotiator, Marvin Reschinsky, said that bonuses for board members would be increased substantially, while “ground employees with hourly wages of €13 in some cases no longer even know how to make ends meet in Germany’s most expensive cities”.

[Le Conceptuel]

Oh boy, they're striking in a semi-functional country that understands the importance of labor unions in a free market? I sure bet this is going to be no different from the strikes in the United States, where they sort of gradually fade away unless they involve people's precious media consumption

Why is this happening? Why do workers in Europe also need to strike? Allegedly "everyone there is to the Left of Biden."

I wonder why labor unions would do the crux of what labor unions do to be effective? Surely, I can shove this into my myopic partisan LARP and justify the continued exploitation of workers in the U.S.!

Either way, if this does fall through, it probably indicates the imminent failure of Germany's prosperity. Labor unions are the heart and soul of the social market system, so if those start failing in extracting a sufficient response, Germany's plunging straight to neoliberal hell.

[Nymrohd]

I do wonder why the train drivers are asking for a work week reduction instead of asking for an inflation adjustment in payment. It's not like 3 hours less a week will let them work a gig. Is the job so taxing that people just cannot handle normal work hours in it (which is possible, I have no clue how hard it is, just asking)? I'd just expect them to want more money to deal with the inflation and the fact that worker compensations have just not kept up for a very long time now.

[Gaidax]

I do wonder why the train drivers are asking for a work week reduction instead of asking for an inflation adjustment in payment. It's not like 3 hours less a week will let them work a gig. Is the job so taxing that people just cannot handle normal work hours in it (which is possible, I have no clue how hard it is, just asking)? I'd just expect them to want more money to deal with the inflation and the fact that worker compensations have just not kept up for a very long time now.

It's simply for the sake of better work/life balance. Not everything is about money.

An extra ~35 minutes a day more to spend on yourself and family, instead of work is not much, but it's better than 0. This adds up, over the years of works.

[Sezerek]

I kinda wonder why this topic is now coming up on mmo-c, given that these strikes are happening since November (and obviously years before) and are absolutely nothing new here in germany anymore.
And the public support for the strikes is starting to wane because the head of the union Weselsky is more often than not lately just coming of as a prick who is holding the german workforce hostage and is walking a very fine line where it had to be checked if its not already in the region of abuse of the right to strike.
Not to mention that the man is goin to retire from his post as head of the union in september. He is totally not trying to force this whole ordeal because he wants this to end as his great legacy there.

[Muzjhath]

I do wonder why the train drivers are asking for a work week reduction instead of asking for an inflation adjustment in payment. It's not like 3 hours less a week will let them work a gig. Is the job so taxing that people just cannot handle normal work hours in it (which is possible, I have no clue how hard it is, just asking)? I'd just expect them to want more money to deal with the inflation and the fact that worker compensations have just not kept up for a very long time now.

Because we should have gone to a full work week being 3p hours not 40 hours some 40 years ago.
Before the 8 hour work day we'd have been doing steady gains.

For the same pay we work 40 hours we ought to work 30.

- - - Updated - - -

I kinda wonder why this topic is now coming up on mmo-c, given that these strikes are happening since November (and obviously years before) and are absolutely nothing new here in germany anymore.
And the public support for the strikes is starting to wane because the head of the union Weselsky is more often than not lately just coming of as a prick who is holding the german workforce hostage and is walking a very fine line where it had to be checked if its not already in the region of abuse of the right to strike.
Not to mention that the man is goin to retire from his post as head of the union in september. He is totally not trying to force this whole ordeal because he wants this to end as his great legacy there.

Because OP is a right-wing Democratic Party shill who likes trying to act superior.

[Milchshake]

Because we should have gone to a full work week being 3p hours not 40 hours some 40 years ago.
Before the 8 hour work day we'd have been doing steady gains.

For the same pay we work 40 hours we ought to work 30.

- - - Updated - - -



Because OP is a right-wing Democratic Party shill who likes trying to act superior.

You're just projecting schatzi. You guys are constantly in the US threads bashing the Dems for not being tankie enough. The 90's are over hon.

I'm just looking at the facts. Theres a SPD/Green coalition government.... and geez they governing more like a centre-right party. Why so much Austerity? Why isnt Herr Chanzellor Scholz backing the Unions?

[Elder Millennial]

sip.

The strikes you are seeing in Germany are way more complicated than they seem superficially.

The German state is utterly delusional and dysfunctional when it comes to basic economic and environmental policy 101. The German state put itself into an unmanageable fiscal position due its near mental illness levels obsession with zero-deficit spending. The finances of the German state itself are beyond good, they are exceptional, but they wrote into the constitution a hard limit on taking on credit. As a consequence the German state literally cannot afford major infrastructure investment it would require to meet its own goals tied to transportation or energy policy. They haven't invested in their transportation infrastructure in decades and pushed by the Greens, they started shutting much of their energy infrastructure without funding for necessary replacement infrastructure. The irony here is that in a pinch they ended up falling back on the worst polluting source of energy...coal. Rather than fixing their idiotic constitutional amendment on deficit, they are trying to shift the upfront costs to the public, not necessarily through increased taxation but through MOAR AUSTERITY.

Of course, the natural reaction of big swaths of the German public to this situation isn't..."Oh maybe we should increase public spending" but going FULL 4TH REICH, kill the immigrants, suck Putin's cock, blame America, blame the EU, re-institute the Kaiserreich!!!111ONe!!one!!11!

Literally every problem Germany has could be fixed overnight by taking on a 4% debt on GDP.

[Muzjhath]

You're just projecting schatzi. You guys are constantly in the US threads bashing the Dems for not being tankie enough. The 90's are over hon.

I'm just looking at the facts. Theres a SPD/Green coalition government.... and geez they governing more like a centre-right party. Why so much Austerity? Why isnt Herr Chanzellor Scholz backing the Unions?

No.

I'm there telling people to vote Dem on National while getting involved in grassroots politics if they want change. There's a difference.

Same as in lots of Europe Governments are more hands-off because of strong unions. But you should know that all of Europe got a hamstrung labour movement during the Thatcher+Reagan era.
Unions have just lately started to push back as hard as they ought to even here.

And then see Elder Millennial.

[KrayZ33]

I kinda wonder why this topic is now coming up on mmo-c, given that these strikes are happening since November (and obviously years before) and are absolutely nothing new here in germany anymore.
And the public support for the strikes is starting to wane because the head of the union Weselsky is more often than not lately just coming of as a prick who is holding the german workforce hostage and is walking a very fine line where it had to be checked if its not already in the region of abuse of the right to strike.
Not to mention that the man is goin to retire from his post as head of the union in september. He is totally not trying to force this whole ordeal because he wants this to end as his great legacy there.

Nah, what makes you think it had to be "checked".
DB doing an appeal at court doesn't mean it had to be checked, court immeadiatly declined and said "uhm, no - suck it up bitch".

[Elegiac]

Being more left-wing than the Democratic Party of the United States doesn't automatically disqualify one from being a neoliberal.

Something a lot of folks forget is that the end of the Cold War has led to a situation in the developed world whereby the only major left wing parties structurally permitted to exist are those which only ever focus on proximate (but often still important) issues rather than representing serious systemic challenges. The Overton Window can only ever shift so far to the left without calling capitalism into question.

[Sezerek]

Nah, what makes you think it had to be "checked".
DB doing an appeal at court doesn't mean it had to be checked, court immeadiatly declined and said "uhm, no - suck it up bitch".

Yeah that part was badly phrased on my part, I was more going for stuff like the interview with Wissing where he was acknowledging that when this whole wage/salary negotiation is finally over, the government is going to have a look at the right to strike and that they might have to change some stuff for when critical infrastructure is affected by strikes (even though I dont think that move would work out in the end, given that the council of europe is already permanently breathing down the neck of the german government because of current restrictions in the right to strike we have.).

[Nymrohd]

The strikes you are seeing in Germany are way more complicated than they seem superficially.

The German state is utterly delusional and dysfunctional when it comes to basic economic and environmental policy 101. The German state put itself into an unmanageable fiscal position due its near mental illness levels obsession with zero-deficit spending. The finances of the German state itself are beyond good, they are exceptional, but they wrote into the constitution a hard limit on taking on credit. As a consequence the German state literally cannot afford major infrastructure investment it would require to meet its own goals tied to transportation or energy policy. They haven't invested in their transportation infrastructure in decades and pushed by the Greens, they started shutting much of their energy infrastructure without funding for necessary replacement infrastructure. The irony here is that in a pinch they ended up falling back on the worst polluting source of energy...coal. Rather than fixing their idiotic constitutional amendment on deficit, they are trying to shift the upfront costs to the public, not necessarily through increased taxation but through MOAR AUSTERITY.

Of course, the natural reaction of big swaths of the German public to this situation isn't..."Oh maybe we should increase public spending" but going FULL 4TH REICH, kill the immigrants, suck Putin's cock, blame America, blame the EU, re-institute the Kaiserreich!!!111ONe!!one!!11!

Literally every problem Germany has could be fixed overnight by taking on a 4% debt on GDP.

While I fully agree with what you are saying, my understanding is that amending the constitution would be less than easy and trying to find a different solution to raise debt would be impossible given the strength of the German courts
Plus, their attitude towards debt is deeply cultural.

That said, they did something similar fairly recently for raising debt for defense

- - - Updated - - -

Being more left-wing than the Democratic Party of the United States doesn't automatically disqualify one from being a neoliberal.

Something a lot of folks forget is that the end of the Cold War has led to a situation in the developed world whereby the only major left wing parties structurally permitted to exist are those which only ever focus on proximate (but often still important) issues rather than representing serious systemic challenges. The Overton Window can only ever shift so far to the left without calling capitalism into question.

Also, FDP is not really more left that the US Democrats and it is part of the coalition.

[Elder Millennial]

While I fully agree with what you are saying, my understanding is that amending the constitution would be less than easy and trying to find a different solution to raise debt would be impossible given the strength of the German courts
Plus, their attitude towards debt is deeply cultural.

The deficit amendment is relatively new. It was added in 2009. It is literally a self inflicted handicap.

But yes, the German's attitude to deficits and austerity is basically the equivalent of the US attitudes towards trickle down economics.

It's dumb, it doesn't work and it causes major systemic problems and there's years and years worth of evidence for the harm it has caused, but it is culturally ingrained.

There's two things you'll never convince the Germans of.

1. To have a sane fiscal policy.
2. Build a goddamn nuclear power plant.

[Twdft]

Actually turns out to be a fairly targetted strike. Will it be effective?

There are already 20+ transport companies who agreed to the 35 hour week, but this will only take effect if the majority of transport sector agrees to it (hard to explain, google Flächentarifvertrag). Since Deutsche Bahn is the biggest they are needed to agree to 35h week in order for employees in 20+ other companies to get it too.

I,m all for the strike, even if my Easter plans might be thwarted. If transportation gets 35h week other sectors will have it easier to achieve it too.