{"id":6423,"date":"2024-03-22T06:46:05","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T06:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/22\/strike-madness-hits-germany-while-its-economy-stumbles\/"},"modified":"2024-03-22T06:46:05","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T06:46:05","slug":"strike-madness-hits-germany-while-its-economy-stumbles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/22\/strike-madness-hits-germany-while-its-economy-stumbles\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Strike Madness\u2019 Hits Germany While Its Economy Stumbles"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/03\/22\/world\/22germany-strikes\/22germany-strikes-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\u2018Strike Madness\u2019 Hits Germany While Its Economy Stumbles\" title=\"\u2018Strike Madness\u2019 Hits Germany While Its Economy Stumbles\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For those striking at the gates of the SRW scrap metal plant, just outside Germany\u2019s eastern city of Leipzig, time can be counted not just in days \u2014 136 so far \u2014 but in the thousands of card games played, the liters of coffee imbibed and the armfuls of firewood burned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Or it can be measured by the length of Jonny Bohne\u2019s beard. He vows not to shave until he returns to the job he has held for two decades. Wearing his red union baseball cap and tending the blaze inside an oil drum, Mr. Bohne, 56, looks like a scruffy Santa Claus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The dozens of workers at the SRW recycling center say their strike has become the longest in postwar German history \u2014 a dubious honor in a nation with a history of harmonious labor relations. (The previous record, 114 days, was held by shipyard workers in the northern city of Kiel who struck in the 1950s.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While monthslong strikes may be commonplace in some other European countries like Spain, Belgium or France, where workers\u2019 protests are something of a national pastime, Germany has long prided itself on nondisruptive collective bargaining.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A wave of strikes this year has Germans asking whether that is now changing. By some measures, the first three months of 2024 have had the most strikes in the country in 25 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Striking workers have brought railways and airports to a standstill. Doctors have walked out of hospitals. Bank employees left work for days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cGermany \u2014 strike nation?\u201d a recent headline in the German magazine Der Spiegel asked. Jens Spahn, deputy leader of the conservative Christian Democrats in the Parliament, denounced a \u201cstrike madness\u201d that he said risked paralyzing the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The strikes are the latest chapter in the story of how Germany, the \u201ceconomic miracle\u201d of the 20th century, looks at risk of becoming a cautionary tale for the 21st.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Long the economic powerhouse of Europe, Germany is now the slowest-growing among the 20 countries using the euro. It went into recession in 2023 and is forecast to stagnate in 2024. Under the weight of soaring energy prices and falling production, the country last year suffered its highest inflation in 50 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The burden has fallen most heavily on its low- and middle-income workers. Since 2022, their real wages, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/newforum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/FNE-WP03-2024-3.pdf\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">according to a recent study<\/a>, have shrunk more than at any time since World War II.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the same time, Germany is facing an ever more severe shortage of labor and an aging population, with officials estimating there will be a shortage of seven million workers by 2035. That spells trouble for the generous welfare system German citizens have long depended on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is a unique moment of opportunity for workers, at a very vulnerable moment for the national economy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cGermany is coming more slowly out of the crisis than expected,\u201d Robert Habeck, the economy minister, said last week, criticizing what he called \u201ca bit too much striking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe really can\u2019t afford this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For decades, Germany\u2019s economy chugged along profitably, underpinned by exports to China and cheap gas from Russia. But Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine prompted Europe to wean itself off the Russian gas that powered German industry. And Beijing\u2019s deepening \u201cMade in China\u201d strategy is turning a huge Asian market that once was a source of growth for Germany into an industrial rival.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The impact on Germany has been worse than elsewhere in Europe precisely because of its enormous manufacturing industry, which makes up a fifth of the country\u2019s overall economic output \u2014 almost double that in France or Britain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For lower-income workers, now bracing for a future less prosperous than the present, there is little to fall back on. Some 40 percent of households have little or no net savings, said Marcel Fratzscher, president of the German Institute for Economic Research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe concerns, dissatisfactions and the fears of young people are fully justified \u2014 and of course of the parents who fear for their kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cPeople had been trusting that social welfare could provide, \u201c he added. \u201cIt can no longer provide what it used to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the metal scrap plant, workers like Mr. Bohne take shifts to maintain their 24-hour strike outside the main gates, warming themselves inside construction containers or around makeshift firepits fueled with scrap wood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The stoppages have forced the plant to halt night shifts, and only one of the four production lines is operating. The strikers, who want an 8 percent pay raise, are feeling emboldened.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cYou notice the solidarity has become stronger,\u201d said Christoph Leonardt, 35, one of the picketing workers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yet the issue is not only about pay. Workers are also demanding better working conditions, the ability to plan work shifts and vacations long in advance, a better work-life balance and fewer hours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe worker has become more self-assured,\u201d said Katrin Heller, a 61-year-old security worker who marched with hundreds of striking colleagues in Day-Glo vests through the Berlin airport\u2019s gleaming new departure hall last week, forcing flights to be canceled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe know we have value to the employers so we expect to be treated fairly,\u201d she said. Officially, airport security workers are demanding a 15 percent raise to keep up with inflation, but many seemed more frustrated with shift schedules that force them to stand for up to six hours without a break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Robert Wegener, 56, a security screener for 19 years, warned that jobs like his were no longer attractive to younger people: \u201cIf we don\u2019t get these extras, there\u2019s not much incentive to work here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His employer, Securitas, agrees. Jonas Timm, a company spokesman, said recruiting had becoming increasingly difficult since the pandemic, when he began noticing a \u201cchange in mentality\u201d about shift work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Many employers have expressed frustrations that more job applicants, for example, demand shorter hours or four-day work weeks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Analysts are not in agreement as to why Germans want to work less, but many say that a major problem is Germany\u2019s tax system, which taxes income far more heavily than it does private wealth, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income workers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Clemens Feust, president of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research, says working full time can be more costly than staying at home. An <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ifo.de\/publikationen\/2021\/aufsatz-zeitschrift\/wie-beeinflussen-steuerentlastungen-die-wirtschaftliche\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Ifo study<\/a> showed that, because of the way taxes are structured for married couples, a family with one partner working full time and the other working part time had more income at the end of the month than two full-time working parents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe fact that it\u2019s not worth working in our middle income brackets is really a problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As striking workers flex their might, the costs to the overall economy risk piling up as critical infrastructure across Germany grinds to a halt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">According to an industry group, the one-day strike at airports in Berlin and Hamburg last week grounded some 570 flights and affected 90,000 travelers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ifw-kiel.de\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Kiel Institute<\/a> for the World Economy has estimated that the train conductors\u2019 strikes cost the German economy about 100 million euros per day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Feust said such costs were often made up as companies and affected travelers made adjustments. The more serious damage, he said, is the economic mood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThis is more about psychology,\u201d he said, particularly in a time when Germany feels polarized by both economic struggles and political ones, including the war in Ukraine and the resurgence of the far right. \u201cIt leads to a heightened sense of crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Striking workers say they, too, are looking for a feeling of security as much as increased pay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe need more reliability, and we need to be able to plan in the long term,\u201d Mr. Bohne said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Only then, he said, will he shave his beard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For those striking at the gates of the SRW scrap metal plant, just outside Germany\u2019s eastern city of Leipzig, time can be counted not just in days \u2014 136 so far \u2014 but in the thousands of card games played, the liters of coffee imbibed and the armfuls of firewood burned. Or it can be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/03\/22\/world\/22germany-strikes\/22germany-strikes-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1933,4791,367,10220,2335,10221],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6423"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6425,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6423\/revisions\/6425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}