First dismiss temporary workers, then implement short-time work, finally push through mass redundancies. This is the plan adopted by many German companies, above all in the auto industry, as their response to the recession.
On July 1 the German army took command of a NATO strike force in the north of Afghanistan, providing a combat force in the region for the first time.
The delaying tactics used by the public service trade union Verdi to prevent Berlin transport workers from taking full strike action are assuming an increasingly grotesque form.
After a strike that has lasted nearly one year, the German train drivers union, GDL, has made a final agreement with Deutsche Bahn (DB—German Railways) that accepts all the basic demands of the company.
The leadership of the train drivers’ union—the GDL (Deutsche Lokomotivführer)—was determined to end its long drawn-out wage dispute with German Railways (Deutsche Bahn—DB) by the end of January. GDL Chairman Manfred Schell repeatedly made clear that this was the main objective of the union, and DB management was also keen to terminate the labour dispute, which began last summer.
Last Sunday, the German train drivers’ union, GDL, and Deutsche Bahn AG agreed on the key elements of a new contract after 10 months of unusually sharp clashes. The GDL leadership has largely dropped the drivers’ original demands for a considerable wage increase and a separate collective agreement.
It is a “compromise with both darkness and light”. These were the words used by the train drivers’ union GDL (Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokführer) at the end of last week to describe the result of the so-called arbitration procedure, which the union has accepted in the course of its dispute with the German Railways (DB). In fact any such description of the procedure drawn up by the two conservative CDU (Christian Democratic Union) politicians Heiner Geissler and Kurt Biedenkopf is utterly misleading. The fact is that the leadership of the GDL has accepted considerable concessions and is preparing the next stage in the betrayal of its membership.
The current conflict between train drivers and the management of German Railways (Deutsche Bahn—DB) contains important political lessons for all workers. It is not possible to counter the systematic attacks being mounted on the wages and social rights of the working class without drawing these lessons.
German train drivers have voted by an overwhelming majority to take unlimited strike action in pursuit of their campaign for higher wages. Some 96 percent of train drivers and conductors who voted in the ballot decided in favour of strike. The overwhelming vote for strike action is even more notable coming as it does in the midst of a concerted campaign against the drivers by business and political circles, as well as sections of the press.
The trial of the former Volkswagen human resources executive Peter Hartz ended on Friday, January 26, with Hartz receiving a two-year suspended sentence and a fine. His case has drawn crowds of journalists and camera teams, with angry workers also protesting outside the court in the town of Braunschweig. Hartz was a former top Volkswagen manager and is still a member of the IG Metall trade union and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). As special advisor to Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD), Hartz had devised the draconian labour market reforms that bear his name. As he went into court he was greeted with calls of “scoundrel,” “traitor” or “put Hartz in jail.”
The long-running trial of former executives at German telecommunications giant Mannesmann, who faced serious corruption charges, has been halted after the defendants agreed to pay several million euros in exchange for no criminal charges being placed on their records. The decision to cut short the trial has met with widespread public indignation in Germany. Many journalists and some politicians have also expressed criticism.
A campaign has been launched to give the German state greater police powers following official claims that bombs found in two regional trains at the end of July were likely left by two young Lebanese men. Security measures severely restricting fundamental democratic rights are now to be introduced in fast-track legislation.
The semi-annual balance sheets of some of the largest companies listed on the DAX (the Deutsche Aktienindex—Germany’s leading stock market index), released in August, reveal the extent of the profits bonanza currently being enjoyed by German big business. The huge increases in profit levels characteristic of the last several years have continued in the first half of 2006, despite a dramatic jump in oil and energy prices.
On Monday, February 6, several thousand public service employees stopped work in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Workers employed in garbage disposal, at hospitals, kindergartens, libraries and swimming pools as well as in many other local council facilities began to strike. The industrial action in southwest Germany is a prelude to an unlimited strike throughout the country.
Concern is growing over the fate of 43-year-old German archaeologist Susanne Osthoff, who was taken hostage in Iraq along with her Iraqi driver on November 25. There has been no news of her whereabouts since the passing of the kidnappers’ December 2 deadline for meeting their demands.
Even before negotiations over the program of Germany’s new grand coalition government had been completed, the country’s trade unions were avidly offering their cooperation and support.
The Partei für Soziale Gleichheit (Socialist Equality Party of Germany) won a total of 15,365 votes in the German parliamentary (Bundestag) election held on September 18. The PSG stood candidates in four of Germany’s sixteen states.
In similar fashion to the German parliamentary elections of 2002, Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is once again posing as an opponent of American war policy in order to win support for his Social Democratic Party (SPD).
A WSWS reporting team spoke recently with workers employed at the DaimlerChrysler plant in Sindelfingen in the southern German city of Stuttgart.
After a six-week hunger strike, the life of 23-year-old Tamil Paramesvaran Sivabalasundaram is hanging by a thread. Only at the last minute did the Berlin senator, Dr. Eckhart Körting of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), decide it was necessary to transfer the Tamil refugee from a detention centre to a regular hospital. His interior secretary, Ulrich Freise (SPD), announced that deportation proceedings have only been temporarily delayed to allow the victim to recover before he is deported.
