Germany: Massive union strike paralyzes trains, airports and local public transport

A strike on a scale unusual for Germany began to paralyze the entire national transport sector on Monday, in the midst of union demands for higher wages in the face of inflation.

workers airports, highway and local transport companies went on strike at midnight for 24 hours. This mobilization is part of the context of growing social tensions in Germanywhere strikes for higher wages have increased since the beginning of the year, from schools to hospitals, through the post office.

Unlike other European countries such as France, the joint movements of the EVG and Ver.di trade unions, representing respectively 230,000 railway workers and 2.5 million service workers, are extremely rare.

favorable soil

This “mega-strike” (mega-strike) – as it was dubbed by the German media – affects a country where prices have risen sharply for more than a year, and inflation in February reached 8.7%. EVG and Ver.di are demanding more than 10% wage increases. Employers (States, Communes, State Companies) are offering a 5% increase with two one-time payments of €1,000 and €1,500 ($1,080 and $1,620).

unions they relied on “broad mobilization”. As of this morning, about “30,000 workers» The railway industry went on strike, according to EVG. Across the country, “long-distance trains and regional lines have been suspended,” according to Deutsche Bahn.

At most airports, including the main Frankfurt and Munich, flights have been cancelled. In many major cities, Public transport they are very worried. In Berlin, the S Bahn network, a combination of trams and metro, is blocked.

The German Airports Federation (ADV) has denounced a “French-style strike escalation” strategy where days of mobilization against pension reform are multiplying.

“Social conflict without consequences is harmless social conflict,” said Frank Wernecke, president of Ver.di. The terrain is becoming more and more favorable for strikes in Germanywhich departs from its characteristic culture of consensus.

“There were more strikes in Germany over the past ten years than in previous decades,” said Carl Brenke, an expert at the DIW economics institute, who was consulted by AFP.

Particularly low unemployment since the late 2000s has left the country suffering from a labor shortage, Brenke said, making unions “strong” in negotiations.

Since the mid 2010s unions they managed to impose a raise after a decade marked by wage containment policies of the era of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (1998–2005) in the name of competitiveness.

Real wages increased systematically from 2014 to 2021, with the exception of 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The momentum broke with inflation in 2022, with a 3.1% drop.

Demonstrations in Germany

Mobilization for wages in the service sector is accompanied by demonstrations

“Fuel and food prices have gone up, my wallet has noticed,” Timo Stau, 21, told AFP at a demonstration on Friedrichstraße, a symbolic avenue in Berlin.

“We kept the public service during the pandemic, now we need more money,” demands Petra, 60, a customs agent.

After the threat of “defeat indefinitely,” Deutsche Post’s 160,000 self-negotiating employees won an average pay increase of 11.5% in early March.

At the end of 2022, some 4 million German workers in the industry secured an 8.5% wage increase over two years after several weeks marked by strikes.