GERMANY: Transport Strike & more – 1st Feb 2024

Hallo from BA! This is the Rorshok Germany Update from the 1st of February twenty twenty-four A quick summary of what's going down in Germany.

All over the country workers in public transport will go on strike on Friday the 2nd. This time it’s the second largest union in Germany: Verdi. Around 1.9 million workers are part of Verdi, all employed in various service industries, including regional public transport. On Friday, buses, trams, and metros will stand still, in fifteen states. Verdi won’t go on strike in Bavaria, as the current contract is still in effect until the end of this year, and thus can’t be renegotiated. The union has specific demands in each region, but the common demands are: A thirty-five hour week with unchanged pay, more holidays, more rest hours, shorter shifts, and a 20% raise with a minimum raise of 650 Euros In several cities. Fridays For Future, a climate movement composed of students, will join Verdi in its strikes and is calling for students to attend joint demonstrations.

Next up, the Union of Locomotive Drivers, or GDL, which has been on strike since last Wednesday, has agreed to negotiate with the National Train Company or DB. Both parties have said they are “hopeful” to reach an agreement. The main demand of the GDL is a step-by-step reduction of weekly hours to thirty-five by twenty twenty-eight with the same pay. The last offer by the DB was received as a slap in the face, as they only offered a small reduction in working hours, at the expense of the workers, “if the amount of workforce available in the future allows it”. The union saw this as an excuse for poor hiring and compensation policy, which were then offloaded onto the workers. The DB will always say that they don’t have enough workers and thus can’t allow shorter work hours. The next time the GDL will be allowed to strike is on the first of March.

Now, moving on from labor disputes to political upheaval. Last time, we talked about the head to head vote between the conservative candidate of the Christian Democratic CDU Party and the Alternative for Germany, or AFD, candidate in the Saale-Orda district. The conservative candidate narrowly won the election for the head of district administration. The candidate of the AFD has close ties with fascist Björn Höcke, and the race was seen as a defining moment in the run-up to the upcoming state-wide elections in Thuringia. The AFD is one of the most extreme state parties and officially a case for the national security services that see the AFD as a “possible threat to democracy.” However, they are currently ranking 1st in statewide polls. People are voting for them either because they (voters and the party) are fascists or, well, despite the party being fascist. Democratic parties across the region breathed a sigh of relief when they heard of the election results in Saale-Orda.

The conservative Christian Democrats, or CDU, are not always enemies of the extremists in AFD. Peter Kurth a former finance senator (which is equivalent to a minister) of Berlin has apparently donated over a 100,000 Euros to the Identitary Movement, or IM. The extremist neo-fascist group used the funds to buy property in Austria to turn it into clubhouses. It was also revealed that the former CDU member, hosted a book presentation for extreme fascists in his own home.

Fascist ideology is not a thing of the past in Germany, and more and more people are realizing that. Again this weekend, hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated all across the country against the AFD. The huge protests in the past weeks were clearly reflected in Saale-Orda where the demonstration mobilized the last few thousand votes necessary for the win of the democratic candidate. Demonstrations took place all over the country, in hundreds of cities and towns, and the biggest ones took place in the west. However, demonstrating in the eastern states is considerably more dangerous, since the AFD holds a huge sway over the population there.

In other news, the German chemistry giant Bayer lost in court on Friday the 2nd. A Jury has convicted the company to the highest ever damages payment of 2.25 Billion US Dollars. The company has announced that it would appeal the decision and it’s expected that a judge will lower the payments due to a ruling of the supreme court that doesn’t allow these high sums in payments for damages.

In economic news, a consortium of fifty huge German companies have signed and published a letter urging the government and the opposition alike to take meaningful steps towards a green transformation. The letter lays out specific policy steps the companies expect but also makes general points about the future needs of the German economy. The signees demand: A loosening of the debt brake to allow investments into a green transformation, increased collaboration of all democratic parties, and a paradigm shift, where green transformation is seen as an opportunity for the German economy not as a threat to it.

Talking about green energy, a national account to subsidize green energy is apparently low on funds.

The Renewable Energy Sources Act or EEG was set up by the government over twenty years ago to help fund investments into renewable energy sources. When renewable energy is sold at the energy market, the proceeds go into the EEG account, from which new investments into renewable energy can be subsidized.

Previously, every energy consumer also paid a small fee per used kW/h, which went into the account. However, the government got rid of the fee last year.

Now, with energy prices on the markets sinking, low funds in the EEG because there’s no fee anymore, and lowered government payments into the account, producers and economists fear that there won’t be enough money left in the account to subsidize green energy.

Moving on, other renowned luxury shopping malls have declared insolvency, citing extraordinary high rents. The KaDeWe mall in Berlin, the Alsterhaus in Hamburg and the Oberpollinger in Munich, all three prestigious luxury shopping malls situated in buildings owned by the Signa Holding are now bankrupt. Lawyers of the companies have said that this is an “important step” to rebuilding the brands, and that they look to the future with hope.

From economical bankruptcy to moral bankruptcy. The union of evangelical churches funded a new study to show the extent of sexual child abuse in the protestant church. For this goal, the researchers needed to look into the personal files of church employees, but the church said that they didn’t have the means to provide all these files. In the end, the church only provided files of cases in which a disciplinary hearing had taken place. Researchers and commentators now fear that these numbers only show the tip of the iceberg and that the church will use this to downplay the problem.

This weekend the recently founded Party of Sarah Wagenknecht, or BSW, a former politician of the party The Left, had its first party congress. The roughly 400 members voted on a political program and elected the party’s leadership. Sarah Wagenknecht, her husband Oskar Lafontaine, and other leading party members made it clear that they weren’t planning on being a “Left 2.0,”; they were aiming to fill a gap on the political spectrum. On the political compass or political coordinate system, most German parties are either socially progressive and economically left, or socially conservative and economically right. The only exception thus far is the Free Liberal Party, or FDP, which is socially progressive but economically right, and now BSW which orientates itself on the economical left, but on the social conservative spectrum.

Aaaaaand that's it for this week. So you listen to us, ideally almost every week, but we don't actually know each other. Here's a chance to fix that. On Monday the 8th of April there is a total eclipse of the sun in Dallas, Texas, in the US. There will be events organized the whole weekend before. So on the off chance you can get here, send us an email or check the show notes for more information.

Ciao!