More strikes than ever before in Saxony

By Michael Rothe

Dresden. The willingness to strike is growing in Germany and especially in Saxony. With 312 industrial disputes nationwide, there was a new record last year. This is according to a study by the Institute of Economic and Social Sciences (WSI) of the trade union Böckler Foundation which has been registering conflicts since 2006.
In addition to supra-regional industrial action at the railroads, the post office, airports, public services and the retail sector, the Institute records 20 actions in Saxony alone - work stoppages lasting at least one day, but usually longer. The disputes were characterized by high inflation and the associated loss of real wages. The result: double-digit wage demands in many cases. In addition, the labor market situation has improved the negotiating position of employees.
"The Saxons are daring, and that's a good thing," comments DGB-Markus Schlimbach, head of the regional branch, explains the statistics. "More collective agreements, higher wages and better working conditions don't fall from the sky, they have to be fought for by the employees with the trade unions," he says. In view of low wages and a sharp rise in prices, it was important to go on the offensive in this way.
Saxony ranks first in the number of industrial disputes in the East and in the top third nationwide. Schlimbach knows the causes: "The low level of collective bargaining coverage, the wage gap with the West and the unwillingness of many employers to conclude collective agreements are leading to more in-house disputes," says the trade unionist.
"Measured by the proportion of employees, there are even more strikes in Saxony than in the West," says Thorsten Schulten, one of the WSI authors, when asked by SZ. "The image of the East as a well-behaved worker is no longer true," says the researcher.
Despite the nationwide increase of 87 strikes, the total number of participants remained below the 2015 peak at an estimated 857,000 and more than 1.5 million lost days.

Warning strikes in several sectors
2024 is also likely to be a year of labor disputes. There have recently been warning strikes in the chemical industry, the printing industry and the banking sector - but ultimately collective agreements. In the Chemnitz City Railway After 15 rounds of strikes, negotiations are once again underway on the introduction of the 35-hour week. Much will depend on the collective bargaining round in the metal and electrical industry in the fall. There, the IG Metall a wage increase of seven percent, which the employers rejected as usual.
Germany is in the lower midfield when it comes to strike action. According to the WSI, the multi-year average in Belgium was 103 working days lost per 1,000 employees, in Canada 83, in Denmark 53 - in Germany 18.