Germany faces new spate of crippling strikes

Germany faces new spate of crippling strikes

This time, civil servants are threatening to extend their warning strikes if employers do not fulfill their demands. Now there is a strike in Germany every single week.

ECONOMY FEBRUARY 21. 2023 06:54

Not long before the next round of the civil servants’ contentious pay dispute, the German Civil Servants’ Association (DBB) has signaled that it could significantly extend the scope of its warning strikes. The dispute over wage hikes has been ongoing for weeks and the situation appears to be deteriorating.

The civil servants’ association demands a 10.5 per cent wage increase of at least 500 euros for the approximately 2.5 million federal and municipal employees. They would also like to extend the duration of the collective agreements. Employer associations, however, consider the civil servants’ demands unrealistic and claim that they would lead to an impossible economic situation.

The first round of the talks in January yielded no results, ushering in a wave of warning strikes.

Ulrich Silberbach, the leader of the civil servants’ association said that state and federal politicians have played a major role in bringing the situation to this point. Their responsibility should not be swept under the rug, he said.

„If the employers continue beating around the bush, the warning strike must inevitably be extended,”

Mr Silberbach told the weekly Bild am Sonntag.

In contrast, Karin Welge, the president of the Association of Local Government Employers (VKA), said that

VKA still thinks that the wage negotiations will bring a sensible dialogue and a fair agreement. DBB’s demands, however, are not economically viable. „Meeting the demands would exceed the capacity of municipal governments,”

the head of VKA has said. A total of three rounds of collective negotiations will be held to resolve the row over wage hikes, with the second round coming up on 22 and 23 February in Potsdam.

In recent months, the strikes – along with the issues of migration and the promotion of a pro-war rhetoric – has dominated Germany. A walkout has been staged almost weekly as workers are unhappy that real wages have fallen sharply as a result of inflation. It was not only public sector employees who walked out on strike. Recently, air travel in Germany was paralised on several occasions after ground crew, pilots and eventually even the flight attendants have suspended work, to highlight their pressing wage issues.

All major airports were brought to a standstill after airport staff went on strike last week.

At the end of January, another strike caused chaos in air travel after around six thousand workers at Berlin airport walked out, upsetting the plans of tens of thousands of passengers for the day.

Postal workers also went on strike for several days recently after their employer refused to compensate for the drop in real wages despite making profits of more than eight billion euros. Around 15,000 employees took part in the strike.

As Deutsche Post operates 82 mail centres, 38 parcel centres and two international mail centres, the days-long strike has caused delays of one or two weeks in dispatching and delivering parcels and letters.

 

ECONOMY

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germany, money, strike