Germany:
35,000 public-sector workers strike
BELOW IS a report of the first day of the current public sector
strike which now involves 35,000 workers on strike in nine of the 16
federal states in Germany. These are the biggest strikes in the public
sector since 1992, although the union leaders have only called out
selected groups of workers.
There are actually three separate disputes taking place. Firstly
there is the union demand that the regional states sign up to the wage
agreement which the federal and local employees agreed to last year;
this was a bad deal for many workers but nevertheless the federal states
don’t want to sign it because they want to be able to easily increase
working time.
The second aspect of these strikes is against those local authorities
that are now attempting to increase the working week from 38.5 to 40
hours with no extra pay.
The third sector involved in strike actions are university hospital
workers. These strikes have been generally supported in strike ballots
by over 90% of workers and public opinion polls show support of around
60% amongst the general population.
Stuttgart’s public sector warning strike
TWENTY THOUSAND public- sector employees in the state of
Baden-WŸrttemberg participated in a warning strike on 5 December. That
was the dress rehearsal. 6 February saw the premiere of an indefinite
strike against the extension of working hours being played out in
south-west Germany.
Ursel Beck, Stuttgart, Sozialistiche Alternative (SAV), Germany (translation by
Sean McGinley)
According to media reports, a total of 10,000 local authority
employees in Baden-WŸrttemberg took part in work stoppages on the first
day of the strike.
In the state capital Stuttgart, the participation was by far the
highest. 5,000 striking employees took part in a demonstration through
the city centre and a rally in front of the town hall. Not a single
parking ticket was written, no rubbish was collected and the
preparations for this summer’s football World Cup were put on hold.
In the nurseries and the city hospital, only emergency cover was
provided. There was only a limited snow clearing service on the roads.
Rubbish collectors, nursery employees, nurses, administrative staff,
cleaning women and workers from all across the public sector went on
strike. A large number of apprentices also took part.
"We know that for this hospital alone an extension of the working
week to 40 hours would cost 160 jobs" explained Dieter Janssen, SAV
member and strike leader at the BŸrger hospital in Stuttgart. Addressing
a strike meeting he added: "And we’re not just striking for our jobs,
but also for good working conditions, so that we can assure a good
quality of care for our patients."
After a strike meeting, 120 employees of the BŸrger hospital formed a
demonstration across the Heilbronner Strasse to the Katherinen hospital,
where a short rally of all hospital employees was held.
On the way, other workers waved from the windows of the office
buildings. Not even the bosses of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce
could prevent their employees from showing their solidarity from the
windows of their offices. "38.5 hours is the compromise – anything else
is shit!" was the slogan resounding from the megaphone.
At the glass palace of the Baden-WŸrttemberg Bank, somebody opened a
window and waved out a flag of the public sector union ver.di. Truck and
car drives blew their horns to express solidarity.
After the strike meeting in front of the Katherinen hospital, the
hospital employees marched together with several thousand colleagues
from other local authority bodies through the city centre to the town
hall. Rubbish collectors chanted: "[Mayor] Schuster out, Schuster out!"
Thomas Boehm, ver.di chairman in Stuttgart and chief shop steward at
the City Hospital, said:
"It is claimed we have secure jobs and
therefore we have no right to be on strike. In the last ten years, more
than 100,000 jobs were lost in the public sector. In the hospital and in
many other public institutions, many colleagues are only being hired on
short-term contracts. Is that what one regards as secure jobs?"
Philippines
"ON THE anniversary of people power, Filipinos may feel they need
another revolution, one that turns their economy around, ends poverty
and corruption, soup kitchens, shanty towns and children scavenging in
bins."
So said a BBC commentator on 24 February as President Arroyo declared
a formal state of emergency in the Philippines on the 20th anniversary
of dictator Ferdinand Marcos’s toppling.
Fuller report on the CWI website
www.socialistworld.net
