If there are no buses, trains or planes on the road for a day in Germany, which is not particularly fond of strikes, the local does what he has always done: complain and then get in the car.
But because of the schools, because of them, everyone’s feeling really hollow, right?! No, not that either. The Ministry of Education in Bavaria gave the all-clear before the weekend. Pupils whose buses and trams are not running are allowed to stay at home. It’s practical anyway, because then they’re where they belong anyway: with mom. And that too is then automatically where it belongs: at home to entertain the children – and to do this home office thing at the kitchen table at the same time.
How valuable the right to strike is, how effective a strike can be, could be illustrated by a completely different industry: the Bavarian brewers’ guild. They too are currently involved in labor disputes. It’s just that nobody notices because everyone is hyperventilating about the “general strike” in Germany (because of the idea behind it, not because of the strike itself), which the French can probably only smile wearily at.
The employees of the Bavarian breweries are demanding twelve percent more wages – and that in a delicate phase. The festival season is about to begin. Every halfway educated Bavarian knows that the folk festival body is made in spring. Now the beer is being brewed that thirsty people from Passau to Erlangen will be drinking from early summer.
We have learned from the corona virus that there are systemically important areas and those that don’t matter. Systemically relevant: everything to do with cars (not to be confused with buses and trains). When in doubt, not that important: everything with children, cultural stuff, nurses.
But we also learned from Generation Z that a job has to be meaningful. For all previous generations, it was ok if the meaningful part of the day began after work. But what would be the point of life if an apple spritzer is waiting for you after work?
If Bavarian breweries went on strike, Söder would have to declare a beer disaster. At least. After all, it is not just about the livelihood of brewery workers and an important Bavarian industry, but about nothing less than the meaning of life. At least in Bavarian life.