The biggest strike in the railway sector has put the German economy in crisis

When, in early 2022, when Russia’s war against Ukraine had just begun, the German Chancellor, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, and members of his government opposed a possible embargo on Russian gas, it was argued that it would mean ” To play with”. “Social Peace” in Germany. There were no restrictions because it was not necessary. Moscow turned off the tap. In Berlin they had to find alternatives to cheaper Russian natural gas. These options are more expensive, so “social peace” in Germany may still be at risk.

This Wednesday, at two o’clock in the afternoon, one of the greatest tests in memory began for the German economy due to a social conflict. The German Union of Machinists (GDL) called for a strike until two in the afternoon the following Monday, unlike anything the country could remember. The protest called by the GDL union is the largest in recent history in the railway sector.

The GDL represents approximately 40,000 workers. The organization is headed by Klaus Weselsky, a 65-year union veteran who can’t be said to have mellowed over the years. It has not been remembered in the history of German social conflicts that someone like Weselsky so clearly rejected the German tradition that aimed to reach agreement between social actors. Before the strike starting this Wednesday, GDL had already gone on a three-day strike in the last three months.

This six-day strike is different. This represents a significant escalation in a social struggle in which the union fights to improve its working conditions. According to German media, German train drivers are a group that earns between 3,127 euros and 3,825 euros per month. The GDL requests wage increases of up to 555 additional euros, cuts in working hours – increasing weekly work from 38 to 35 hours – and a special package to fight inflation. Thus, they want to protect their customers from rising prices. According to data from the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis), inflation ended 2023 with an average of 5.9%.

The management of Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s largest railway company, made a proposal so that train drivers could reduce their working hours from 2026, receive a pay increase of up to 13% by 2025 as well as an additional salary against inflation of 3,000 euros. Can. The proposal by Deutsche Bahn’s Chief of Staff, Martin Seiler, had no effect. On the contrary, what has been proposed by the company is only “a clear proposal”, he said at GDL, where he felt “betrayed” by Deutsche Bahn, the company privatized in the 90s but controlled by the German state.

In short, management and drivers have a problem. An editorial in a progressive newspaper summed it up asFrankfurter Rundschau: “There are many things going wrong at Deutsche Bahn: on the one hand, there are train cancellations, delays, a neglected railway network and on the other, there is a management that has not solved these problems for many years, but has perpetuated them. ” Millionaire Bonus,” it says. I read the editorial that the newspaper carried on its cover.

The editorial referred to bonuses that were pocketed by Deutsche Bahn’s management and were made public late last year. So, public television NDR, WDR and diary pseudodeutsche zeitung They realized that, as a 2022 bonus, up to five million would have been distributed among the company’s senior management.

Despite the fact that the company’s operations have meant that the bonus will be paid in 2023, delays on its trains have been a problem not seen in the last eight years. According to details in the Sunday edition of the newspaper image“Only one of the two long distance trains” was punctual.

Scholz government faces strike

The railway conflict with Deutsche Bahn would have a great impact on the lives of Germans in the days to come. GDL had given 48 hours notice for the strike. In total, there will be 136 hours of disruption to the movement of people and goods in local, regional and long distance trains.

The strike will leave its mark on Germany’s already disrupted economy, which ended 2023 in recession and faces a complicated situation in 2024. The Berlin newspaper said in its Tuesday edition der tagsspiegelwarned on its front page that the strike would cost the economy “billions of euros”.

In an editorial, the centre-left newspaper described the GDL “mega-strike” as “excessive” and “dangerous”. The Institute of German Economics (IW), an economic study center based in Cologne, indicated that each day of the strike would result in losses of about 100 million euros.

In the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who would like to see the country’s economy grow, because, among other things, part of its political survival depends on it, there is a clear lack of understanding with the strikers. In particular, Transport Minister, liberal politician Volker Vissing, said in a statement to public television ZDF “This form of salary discussion makes no sense.”

Farmers and transporters also protested

The German government has seen how a large part of the country came to a standstill earlier this year due to protests by farmers and transporters. They spent a week mobilizing at a large tractor rally in Berlin, with which they showed their opposition to the executive’s intention to cut fuel subsidies for farm and road workers. If tractors were blocking roads at the beginning of the month, now is the time for GDL train drivers to strike.

Ver.di union, the largest labor organization in the service sector, also has ups and downs with the management of Germany’s major airline company Lufthansa. In the middle of this month, talks regarding remuneration started in the company. He explains in Ver.di that workers also want, on the one hand, to improve their wages to better cope with the inflationary economic environment, and, on the other hand, want to see the impact of the “record profits” recorded by Lufthansa on them. Are.

Lufthansa employs 25,000 people in Germany. A strike by employees of this company, such as the one that occurred in July 2022 or late 2019, left thousands of passengers without flights. That Lufthansa would have a repeat of the same fight that GDL is now waging with Deutsche Bahn is certainly one of the worst economic scenarios that Chancellor Scholz could think of.