Germany has the largest, and one of the strongest, economies in Europe and strikes have been rare throughout most of the post-war period thanks to longstanding agreements between the government, employers’ federations and trade unions. In recent months, however, workers have been impacted by the fall in real wages as the cost of essentials has skyrocketed and wage levels, negotiated by the unions in binding agreements, have failed to keep pace. The year 2022 saw many strikes, but for the most part these have been so-called “Warnstreiks”, or warning strikes – one-day strike actions restricted to certain sectors and often limited by state or region.

The Railway and Transport Workers’ Union (EVG) called on Deutsche Bahn (DB) employees to go on a day-long warning strike from midnight on 26/27 March. The railway declared that, as a result, long-distance traffic would be completely suspended. There would also be no trains in regional and suburban rail services. Freight traffic was largely held back on Monday to allow trains to start running quickly after the strike, the railways announced.

Together with the simultaneous strike by Verdi in the public sector, this so-called mega-strike brought large parts of air, rail and local transport to a halt throughout the country. Airports, municipal public transport companies, municipal ports, motorway companies and water and shipping management are at a standstill.

With this latest strike, the EVG reacted to an initial offer made by the railway company on 14 March. At the first round of negotiations at the end of February, the company, represented by the personnel director Martin Seiler, had initially refused to meet the demands of the EVG.

The EVG demanded wage increases of 12% for the 180,000 workers it represents, but at the least an increase of 650€ per month, for a period of twelve months. It is also demanded some minor structural changes in collective agreements. DB described these demands as the equivalent of an increase of 25%, which is nonsense.

The “offer” from DB is far worse and amounts to a huge cut in living standards. The wages of railway employees are, according to the offer, to be raised in two steps by a total of 5%: from 1 December 2023 by 3% and from 1 August 2024 by 2%. In addition, there would be a so-called inflation compensation premium subsidized by the federal government. This is a one-off, so it will not permanently improve the wage level with rising inflation, and would amount to only 2500€.

The EVG called the strike for one reason only and that is the mood of its membership. There is a widespread willingness among workers to fight. In the face of skyrocketing prices, they are refusing to accept further real wage cuts.

DB is 100 percent state-owned, which means the railway workers are directly confronted by the federal government, currently a so-called “traffic light” coalition of SPD, FDP and Greens.

However, as a member of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), the EVG is a regime union “par excellence” with close links to the government. In October 2020, it signed an early collective agreement with a zero increase in the current year. In Germany, such agreements are intended to make strike action illegal. Train drivers and conductors organized in the Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer (GDL) were similarly subjected to agreements that lowered real wages and prevented strike action for 32 months, up until autumn 2023. The GDL is not affiliated with the DGB but is no less in the pocket of the employers.

Today, the regime unions find it more difficult to keep a lid on things. First, because there have been strikes in other sectors such as the postal service; second, because German workers in general are feeling the pressure of falling living standards; and third, because workers are engaged in struggle internationally. This makes it difficult for the bosses to divide and rule with the usual rhetoric about “staying competitive”.
Moreover, the bosses’ argument that increased wages means less investment in the railways has also been exposed as false. Successive coalition governments have been dismantling the railway network for decades, irrespective of wages, to make it more attractive to private investors, i.e., removing the parts deemed insufficiently profitable. Anyone who relies on the railways can see this. Cancellations and delays have become the norm.

This is not only true of the railways. Other public services, including healthcare and education, are also underfunded as the rate of profit falls and federal resources are diverted to military rearmament. Meanwhile, the salaries and “bonuses” of those at the top of large enterprises continue to rise, as is the case in all major economies.

In Germany, the supervisory boards of large companies include representatives of the regime unions. The deputy chairman of the DB supervisory board is Martin Burkert, who is President of the EVG. He sat in the Bundestag for the “red” SPD from 2005 to 2020. Cosima Ingenschay, who is federal executive director of the EVG, also sits on the supervisory board, as do the works council chairpersons of DB subsidiaries.

In effect, this means that members of the trade union bureaucracy base their remuneration on that of senior management, not that of rank and file members. They also identify with the class interests of the bosses rather than those of the working class. At the same time, they must serve as a valve on the pressure cooker of working class anger. Hence the need to call the occasional “Warnstreik” when the situation gets critical – even the so-called “mega-strike” of 27 March.

As the strike wave generalizes, the pressure will become increasingly difficult for the regime unions to contain. For German workers to succeed they must break from the cozy boardroom deals and organize independently, across various industrial sectors and form class unions. And in a Europe that is increasingly integrated (for example, the main rail networks cross international borders) it is more important then ever to coordinate with workers in the nine countries bordering Germany – and beyond.