Re: East German strikes escalating

["Johannes Schneider" <Johannes.Schneider@xxxxxxx>]

Here is an update on the East German strikes.

While the strikes started almost without much notice, the situation changed
over the last weekend, when the results were felt in the West German auto
industry.

A massive propganda campaign was started all over the media denouncing the
IG Metall as 'irresponsible'.

While such a campaign is nothing new during a strike, it remains to be noted
that the IG Metall had never been so isolated (even the PDS joined the
attacks on the IG Metall).

During previous strike actions IG Metall was as least able to organize a
certain amount of support for the strikes.

In my eyes the outcome of the strike will be the most dicisive political
event this summer in Germany.

Johannes

>From FAZ weekly

End to eastern strike action nears
Car production still stalled, but leaders return to negotiating table

By Heidi Sylvester

Leaders of the powerful IG Metall industrial union and employers met
Thursday to try to end a three-week strike in eastern Germany that has
started to cripple production at a number of carmakers. IG Metall is
demanding a reduction in weekly hours from the current 38 to bring the
eastern work week in line with that in the West.
IG Metall head Klaus Zwickel and Martin Kannegiesser, the president of
Gesamtmetall, the employers' bargaining agent for the metalworking and
engineering sectors, met late on Thursday to size up each other's
willingness to compromise before returning to the negotiating table on
Friday, when they will reassess collective bargaining agreements. This is
the first time these leaders have met since the end of May, just before
strike action broke out.
The growing impact of the strike, which has now started to affect production
in western Germany, along with increasing appeals from political leaders to
end the dispute, has increased pressure for a settlement to be reached.
Gesamtmetall has indicated its readiness to consider a reduction in working
hours as soon as the economy recovers. As a sign of its willingness to
compromise, IG Metall halted its strike action at the parts supplier ZF
Friedrichshafen in Brandenburg, a step that allowed carmaker BMW to resume
production. BMW was forced to stop production in some of its western plants
owing to a hold-up in supplies coming from the East.
Carmakers, a mainstay of the German economy, were forced to halt production
at some of their biggest plants this week. With strikes halting supplies of
vital parts, Europe's biggest carmaker, Volkswagen, will be forced to stop
producing its flagship Golf and Lupo models at its main Wolfsburg plant
starting Friday.
Works stoppage at parts factories in  eastern Germany means that Volkswagen
will produce 20,000 fewer vehicles, VW head Bernd Pischetsrieder said at the
start of this week. From Tuesday, VW workers will temporarily work shorter
hours at reduced pay.
Employers argue the union demand would push up wage costs by 8 percent and
drive investors from the economically depressed East, where unemployment is
twice as high as in the West, hovering at around 17 percent. Longer working
hours and government subsidies helped attract investors to this region. Some
of those investors are beginning to regret that decision.
BMW warned last week that it might be forced to reconsider its investment
plans in eastern Germany if the strikes continued. Siemens, the engineering
and electronics giant, echoed BMW's warning that the strikes might affect
investment.
If a compromise is not reached by the weekend, IG Metall has said it will
extend strikes into the western states.
Jun. 27



----- Original Message -----
From: "Johannes Schneider" <Johannes.Schneider@xxxxxxx>
To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Discussions on the Socialist Register and
its articles" <SOCIALIST-REGISTER@xxxxxxxx>; <rad-green@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2003 10:35 AM
Subject: East German strikes escalating


> Here is an update from AP about the ongoing metall workers strike in East
> Germany from AP.
> Source:
> http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/6125997.htm
>
> German Workers Ordered to Stop Blockades
> STEPHEN GRAHAM
> Associated Press
>
> BERLIN - East German factory workers were ordered Thursday to stop
> blockading factories to keep out strike breakers as the impact of their
> walkouts for shorter working hours threatened to spread to western
Germany.
>
> Workers were taken by bus to a plant run by U.S. auto parts maker Federal
> Mogul in the southeastern city of Dresden after courts ruled the blockades
> illegal and fined the head of IG Metall, Germany's largest industrial
union.
> The firm used helicopters to fly in staff earlier in the week.
>
> The union has targeted auto companies such as Volkswagen and
DaimlerChrysler
> in a strike now in its third week, seeking to force a reduction in the
> average work week in the once-communist east from 38 hours to 35 hours -
the
> same as in the wealthier west. Some 11,400 employees followed the strike
> call at 16 companies on Thursday, it said.
>
> The union argues that productivity gains in the east mean it is time to
iron
> out differences in working conditions nearly 13 years after German
> reunification. But employers say the extra hours are a key magnet for
> investors in a region still suffering chronic unemployment.
>
> At Federal Mogul, a bus carrying workers trying to defy the union inched
its
> way past jeering and whistling strikers along a 10-foot-wide corridor
> cleared on a court order. Two dozen police officers were standing by to
make
> sure the bus reached the plant, which employs 330 people.
>
> The firm said it had flown in about 100 workers and supplies between
Tuesday
> and Thursday.
>
> Another court in Brandenburg near the capital Berlin fined IG Metall boss
> Klaus Zwickel euro25,000 ($29,000) after the union failed to lift its
> blockade at a plant owned by Canadian train builder Bombardier and gearbox
> maker ZF Getriebe, which supplies automaker BMW.
>
> BMW said it would have to halt production of its top-selling 3-series
sedan
> as a result. BMW personnel chief Ernst Baumann said four plants in western
> Germany would be affected from Monday.
>
> BMW already warned of the disruption on Wednesday and said it would review
> plans to build a new plant in the eastern city of Leipzig with 5,000
> employees.
>
>