The heavy shadow of the consequences of historic strikes over Germany

According to the report of the international group Tasnim news agency, newspaper ” In an article, Tagus Spiegel pointed to the wave of strikes and protests in Germany that continues and spreads to different sectors and, emphasizing that this experience is an extraordinary strike situation, raised the question of whether Germany has become a Will the republic stagnate?

On local transport, on trains, in the air – workers are on strike everywhere, and here the question is whether France’s conditions Is it now in Germany? This is how experts explain the continuous strikes.

This article continues: When the International Tourism Fair in Berlin ends this Thursday, many guests will have a hard time. will have to leave. Parallel strikes at Deutsche Bahn, Lufthansa and security staff at Frankfurt and Hamburg airports are crippling travel for visitors. On Wednesday, Lufthansa cabin crew also voted to go on strike.

Many Germans increasingly imagine a wave of strikes of unprecedented proportions. and here the question is whether Germany (in the shadow of these strikes) will become a stagnant country?

Torsten Scholten, expert Bazar Kar from the Institute of Economic and Social Sciences affiliated to trade unions (WSI) says: We are currently experiencing an extraordinary strike situation. However, the simultaneous strikes in local transport, rail and aviation were random and did not follow any agreement. In particular, the Verdi service union always monitors the acceptance of strikes.

In 2022, Germany, of course, experienced few strikes. The Federal Employment Agency will not release figures for 2023 until the end of April. Schulten expects a significant increase in strike days – due to greater employee involvement in labor disputes. He said in this regard: “I expect this to be reflected in the figures of 2023 and 2024 as well.

“Scholten” attributed the greater desire of employees to strike to the high inflation of the years recent and declining real wages. This economic researcher says: “distribution conflicts are more difficult now.

This year, unions will try to increasing the purchasing power of its members to negotiate and thus demand significant wage increases. The question is: “Who will bear the costs of the crisis—employees or employers?” A strike helps.

Wolfgang Schroeder, a political scientist, explains the perceived increase in labor disputes as a result of structural changes. According to him, in the past mainly workers There were industries that went on strike. We are currently experiencing strikes mainly in critical infrastructure – in railways, airports and hospitals. More people are affected by strikes in these sectors.

Frank Basirske, the green politician and former head of Verdi, also blames employers for many strikes.

At Lufthansa , pilots, flight attendants and ground staff are fighting independently – with different unions – for more pay. Security personnel at airports have been added to these. All this increases the likelihood of strikes.

Scholten, an economic researcher, says: Lufthansa has very good annual results and its employees continue to suffer from inflation. This sense of injustice promotes strikes.

Wolfgang Schröder, a political scientist, also blames Deutsche Bahn for exacerbating the current wage dispute. At the beginning of the collective bargaining round, Human Resources Director Martin Seiler announced that he did not want to negotiate reduced hours. “It was a fundamental siege that has had a significant impact on the conflict to this day,” says Schroeder. It is very easy to go on strike in Germany under these circumstances, as it is clear which major collective agreements are suspended. The next negotiations will be in the construction industry, then the chemical industry in May, and after the summer, the metal and electrical industry, with several smaller rounds of negotiations in between, Scholten explains.

Recently, the wave of strikes and protests in different parts of Germany has caused many disturbances in this country, so that some experts have called this year the year of strikes in this country.

These strikes are held repeatedly in various sectors of public transportation, medicine, airline employees and other sectors.

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