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Berlin (AFP) – A strike of an unusual scope for Germany began on Monday to halt the entire national transport sector, amid a union demand for wage increases in the face of inflation.
The workers of the airports, of the companies that manage the highways and of the local transports began at midnight (22:00 GMT) a 24-hour strike.
This mobilization is part of a context of growing social tensions in Germany, where strikes to demand wage increases have multiplied since the beginning of the year, from schools to hospitals, through the post office.
Unlike in other European countries such as France, a joint movement between the EVG and Ver.di unions, which respectively represent 230,000 railway company workers and 2.5 million service sector employees, is extremely rare.
favorable ground
This “Mega-Streik” (mega-strike) – as the German media dubbed it – affects a country where prices have skyrocketed for more than a year, with inflation reaching 8.7% in February.
EVG and Ver.di demand more than 10% salary increase.
Employers (States, communes, public companies) propose a 5% increase, with two single payments of 1,000 and 1,500 euros (1,080 and 1,620 dollars).
The unions bet on a “broad mobilization.” Since this morning, about “30,000 workers” in the railway sector have gone on strike, according to EVG.
Throughout the country, “long-distance train traffic was suspended, as well as regional lines,” according to the Deutsche Bahn company.
At most airports, including the main Frankfurt and Munich, flights were cancelled.
In many big cities, public transport is very disturbed. In Berlin, the S Bahn network – a collection of trams and subways – is blocked.
The federation of German airports (ADV) denounced a strategy “of escalating the strikes following the model of France”, where the days of mobilization against the pension reform are multiplying.
“A social conflict that has no repercussions is a harmless social conflict,” replied Frank Werneke, president of the Ver.di union.
The terrain is increasingly favorable for strikes in Germany, which is moving away from the culture of consensus that has characterized it. “There have been more strikes in Germany in the last ten years than in previous decades,” observes Karl Brenke, an expert at the DIW economic institute consulted by AFP.
With particularly low unemployment since the late 2000s, the country suffers from a labor shortage that puts unions “in a position of strength” in negotiations, according to Brenke.
Since the mid-2010s, the unions have managed to impose increases, after a decade marked by the wage moderation policy of the era of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (1998-2005), in the name of competitiveness.
Real wages increased systematically from 2014 to 2021, except in 2020 as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.
The dynamics broke with inflation in 2022, with a drop of 3.1%.
demonstrations
The mobilization for wages in services is accompanied by demonstrations
“The price of fuel and food increased, my wallet noticed it,” Timo Stau, 21, told AFP at a demonstration on Friedrichstrasse, an emblematic avenue in Berlin.
“We kept the public service alive during the pandemic, now we want more money,” demands Petra, 60, a customs agent.
After the threat of a “smash for an indefinite period”, the 160,000 employees of the Deutsche Post mail, who negotiate on their own, achieved a salary increase of an average of 11.5% in early March.
At the end of 2022, about 4 million German workers in the industry achieved a wage increase of 8.5% in two years, after several weeks marked by strikes.
