analysis
Status: 03/27/2023 2:35 p.m
Today’s “super warning strike” in the public sector is unprecedented. Is the strike culture in Germany changing permanently? Some experts also see a “turning point” here.
The outcry among employers was already great before the “super strike”: The general manager of the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA), Steffen Kampeter, sees the “acceptance of the right to strike” at risk, the logistics industry warned of “supply chaos”, the chairwoman of the municipal Employers’ associations, Karin Welge, even spoke of “radicalization”.
In fact, today’s strike day is unprecedented in Germany. To find something comparable, you have to look back a long time: The last joint strikes were in the early 1990s in local and long-distance transport and at airports. But at that time it was not about warning strikes. Is Germany – in comparison to other European countries, above all France, which is not exactly known as “happy to go on strike” – facing a radical change in terms of the culture of strikes?
Tariff dispute in the exceptional situation
“Honestly, I don’t think so,” says Thorsten Schulten, political scientist and expert on wage and collective bargaining policy at the employee-friendly Hans Böckler Foundation in an interview with the rbb. Strikes like the one in the public sector are naturally more noticeable to people than in the metal industry – simply because almost everyone is affected by the consequences.
The timing is more unusual: it’s not that common for a strike to take place while the third round of collective bargaining is beginning in Potsdam. But one cannot yet speak of a turning point. The current situation with inflation, energy crisis and Corona is an exceptional situation, says Schulten. “If this were to drag on for years, I could imagine that. However, all the forecasts that we have from the economic research institutes assume that we will be dealing with a certain normalization of the economic situation again from 2024 or 2025 – unless something extraordinary or pandemic happens again in global politics.”
Joint warning strikes as a novelty
Hagen Lesch from the employer-related Institute of the German Economy (IW) definitely sees a new level. Various unions went on strike together in the 1980s and 1990s, but always for an indefinite period. “This is new for warning strikes,” says Lesch in an interview tagesschau.de. The timing is less unusual; on the contrary, in his eyes, the intensity of the strikes had noticeably increased. With a positive effect for the unions: “We are on the threshold of a reorientation of the strike,” says Lesch. He has the suspicion that sometimes it is no longer about collective bargaining goals, but about getting as many members as possible.
In fact, the strike has paid off for ver.di so far: according to the union, 50,000 new members joined in January and February. “Strike disputes are of course always times when unions gain more members than in calm times,” says political scientist Schulten. It remains to be seen whether the trend will continue at the end of the year.
“French strike culture” as a role model?
However, ver.di crosses a line when it comes to cooperation with political organizations such as “Fridays for Future”, according to IW economist Lesch. A few weeks ago, both organizations took to the streets together, before that in 2020, in a collective bargaining dispute in local public transport. “There is a risk here that the line between a political strike and a collective bargaining strike will become blurred,” says Lesch. From a purely legal point of view, strikes in Germany – unlike in France, for example – may only be used to achieve collective bargaining goals; the fact that two unions are calling for strikes at the same time is not a problem. “I think it’s worrying that we’re growing into a strike culture that’s similar to the French strike culture,” says Lesch. He doesn’t think anyone would approve of that.
Marcel Fratzscher, President of the Board of Directors of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), also speaks of a “turning point”. “The times of an employer market in which employers could more or less dictate wages and working conditions seem to be over,” says Fratzscher. Due to the shortage of skilled workers, employers have significantly less power than they did some time ago – even if many do not yet want to admit it. “The labor dispute and the mega strike in the transport sector are the logical result of this turning point.” For the coming years he expects a significant increase in labor disputes in Germany.
Split mood in the population
But will the population go along with more “super strikes” like today in the public sector? Monday morning, Freiburg main station in Freiburg. Not much going on. But some travelers and commuters are stranded here after all. “I find it too violent to paralyze an entire country,” says one woman. “It’s a day, I’ll survive,” says another.
Not an unusual mood. According to current ARD Germany trend a slim majority supports the wage demands in the public sector. Nevertheless, the voices of those calling for restrictions on the right to strike are also becoming louder – especially in the area of critical infrastructure. According to a current survey by the opinion research institute INSA on behalf of the SME and Economic Union of the Union parties, 60 percent of Germans are already in favor of restricting the right to strike in this area.
“Trade unions can also go too far,” says IW economic researcher Lesch. In this way it is possible for the public to support the demands of the trade unions. But: If they are hit too often by train or daycare strikes, for example, this could also counteract the unions at some point.