Strikes In Germany Continue To Create Chaos
Last Thursday saw pollsters from the office of Central Statistics and Meteorologists join sanitation workers, bank officials and teachers in the wave of cautioning strikes occurring across the public service sector. This new action began just hours prior to employers and union representatives embarked on two days of talks ,in Potsdam, on wages and conditions.
Heading into the discussions was Thomas Boehle, a representative for one of the employers concerned, who said that they were well prepared to be agile enough to improve their current situation. He told reporters that they would forward an offer to the unions if discussions proceeded effectively.
On January 1st, members of the labor union Ver.di had demanded wages to be increased by 5.5%, rather than the proposed 8%, for the 1.3 million workers of the public sector in Germany. Over the past two years the German government had only offered an increase of just 5% along with the longer working hours, this offer was not accepted by the labor union.
A possible outcome of the negotiations is that employers will offer an extra rise in wages and incentives in a long term agreement, said Boehle.
Frank Bsirske, the leader of the labor union said that he was hoping these strikes would deliver a strong message to employers. He disagreed that workers from the public sector deserved extra income through tax revenue raising as the economy of Germany improves.
Several thousand workers from the public sector have stopped working in airports, police forces, municipal offices, banks and schools in a bid to gain better conditions. This new wave of strikes have usually lasted for only a few hours, unlike the unrestricted, full-scale stoppage seen earlier in the month. Leader of the German Federation of Labor Union, Michael Sommer, told the daily Neue Presse that these warning strikes may end very soon, if employers renegotiate and make a sensible offer. The Wiesbaden based Federal Statistics office and Offenbach’s German Weather Service were hit badly due to the stoppage which focused on southern and central Germany last Thursday.
School Teachers and the Public transport workers in Bavaria, Baden-Wuertenburg and Hesse also walked off their jobs. The bus, tram and sub-way workers in Berlin also walked off their jobs for the second day for the 10 day public sector strikes which are intended to gain an increase in wages of 12%.
Disputes over wages roil amidst concerns over awareness in Germany of wealth from the present economy of the country being distributed illegally. In another dispute, the train drivers union GDL has also threatened to start a determined strike against the rail network of the region on Monday, if deutsche Bahn AG, the national railway operator, does not sign a negotiated agreement which was made earlier.
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.