(Original title: Traffic paralyzed! Inflation cloud lingering, Germany suffered the worst strike in decades)
News from the Financial Association on March 27 (edited by Bian Chun) With the cloud of inflation lingering, Germany, Europe’s largest economy, suffered the latest round of strikes on Monday local time. The strike, one of the largest in decades, will shut down mass traffic and the airport.
The strike was jointly launched by the German service trade union Verdi (Verdi) and the railway transport union (EVG). Public transportation and highways, the commuting of millions of business employees, teachers, caregivers, etc. will be affected.
In fact, transportation was disrupted in some areas on Sunday as a prelude to the general strike. Munich Airport, Germany’s second largest airport, has started a two-day warning strike on the 26th. The airport company said that due to the strike of employees, flight operations for these two days will be suspended. A total of about 1,500 flights were affected and 200,000 passengers had to change their itineraries.
In the first hours of the latest round of strikes, union bosses and employers were at a stalemate. Union bosses have warned that the massive wage hikes are a matter of “survival” for thousands of workers, while employers have called workers’ demands and resulting actions “excessive”.
German inflation beats euro zone average
Right now, high food and energy prices in Germany are severely undermining people’s life satisfaction. Germans are undergoing a painful turnaround after years of flat prices, with the cost of living rising on everything from butter to rent. Workers are increasingly demanding wage increases.
Germany, which relied heavily on Russian gas before the conflict with Ukraine, has been hit especially hard by rising inflation, which has outpaced the euro zone average in recent months, as the country looks for new energy supplies since the conflict broke out.
Germany’s consumer price index rose 9.3% in February from a year earlier, beating expectations. This suggests that inflationary pressures remain stubborn despite continued rate hikes by the ECB.
Stalemate between labor and capital
Frank Werneke, president of the Verdi union, told the media on Sunday that “a big wage increase is a matter of life and death for thousands of employees.”
The Verdi union represents some 2.5 million workers in the public sector in negotiations with employers, including public transport companies and airport operators. The rail transport union is negotiating for about 230,000 employees of rail operator Deutsche Bahn and bus companies.
Verdi is demanding a 10.5 percent raise, or at least 500 euros ($538) a month, while the rail transport unions are demanding a 12 percent raise, or at least 650 euros a month.
Deutsche Bahn slammed the strike on Sunday as “totally excessive, unwarranted and unnecessary”. Transport employers have also warned that higher wages for transport workers will lead to higher fares and taxes.