“Der mega streike”, the “mega-strike”, is the name that the media give to this movement, the most important for 30 years. Because until midnight Monday March 27 everywhere it disengages: in the railways (no mainline trains today), in airports (almost all closed, except Berlin), highways, maritime freight and bus networks , tram, metro.
“The worst strike for 31 years” tomorrow Monday, it will be complicated in Germany on the roads, in the air and on the rails. ver.di union steps up pressure as wage talks continue pic.twitter.com/Zd8Y9stvmf
—Pascal Thibaut (@pthibaut) March 26, 2023
The two trade unions in the sector, EVG and Ver.di, which represent almost three million people, gave the same slogan and that is almost unheard of in Germany, where negotiations usually take place per branch.
>> “Mega-strike” in Germany: “It’s all new for us, but we have to put pressure”, explains a trade unionist mobilized for the increase in wages
The movement has nothing to do with retreats. What the unions are demanding is an increase in wages: 10 to 12%, including a minimum of 500 euros for the lowest incomes. Request rejected during negotiation sessions in recent weeks. The employers (ie the State, the municipalities and the public companies) propose an increase of 5% maximum. With two payments of 1,000 and 1,500 euros this year and next year. But for employee representatives, this is insufficient. Because prices have been soaring for a year, inflation was at almost 9% in February. This is the high range for the entire euro zone.
The historic culture of consensus is moving away
Moreover – and this is an unusual fact in Germany – strikes have been on the increase for several years. It’s simple, for ten years there have never been so many. The particularly low level of unemployment and the lack of labor create fertile ground for the social movement, the unions are in a position of strength.
Since 2014, every year they had managed to negotiate salary increases (except in 2020 because of the Covid). But this year inflation has broken this dynamic. And the historic culture of consensus that usually prevails in wage negotiations is fading away.
[A LA UNE A 18H]
A massive strike is set to paralyze the transport sector in Germany on Monday as unions mount pressure for wage hikes in the face of inflation #AFP 3/5 pic.twitter.com/oThUcz4vsw– Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) March 23, 2023
What is called “warning strikes“are multiplying in schools, hospitals… La Poste, whose 160,000 employees have just obtained an average salary increase of 11.5% after threatening to launch a”indefinite strike“. The tensions are such that the Federation of German Airports denounces a strategy “escalation of the conflict on the French model“, a real scarecrow in the eyes of the Germans, for whom social conflicts are synonymous with almost permanent chaos.