strike

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Public service strike in Hamburg on April 12, 2018

A strike is a temporary refusal to work by a relatively large number of workers in order to achieve a common goal in their work and employment relationships . Their collective work stoppage hurt - after the collective labor of the Federal Republic of Germany - not their obligation to work , as deemed to be suspended for the duration of the strike the employment relationship.

General

The strike can have very different aims and addressees. As part of the constitutionally guaranteed collective bargaining autonomy , a strike, which is only permissible after the peace obligation has expired, is intended to induce employers to comply with the demands of the trade unions by concluding a corresponding collective agreement . The trade unions can only effectively enforce their interests if they can back up their demands through strikes. A wildcat strike is the unauthorized stoppage of workers by a union. Political strikes are intended to put parliament and government under pressure with the aim of ensuring that the interests of the strikers are taken into account in their decisions. In politically acute situations, they can develop into general strikes that cripple the economy of an entire country.

etymology

The German loan word strike evidently arose in 1810 from “stop work, strike” ( English strike ), which has been documented in England since 1768. As 1768 in Sunderland sailors against poor working conditions wanted to fight, they boarded a number lying in the harbor ships, leaving their yards down ( english strike the sails , German  bow out ) to prevent them from leaking. That same year, the word "strike" for the stoppage of work spread outside of the maritime sector, particularly in the coal mines of Wales . Also still in 1768 went on strike and refused to work Hatter, were raised to their wages ( english This day the hatters struck and refused to work till Their wages are raised ). After 1810 the expression appeared sporadically in Germany, since 1865 the word has spread frequently - in connection with the Threepenny Strike of April 1865. The original English form for the strike can now be found in many foreign languages ​​except German ( Danish strejke , Swedish strejk , Norwegian strike , Croatian shtrajk, Serbian - Cyrillic shtrijk , Polish straik or Hungarian sztrájk ).

history

Strikes in pre-industrial times

The Strike
painting by Robert Koehler , 1886
Strike
painting by Mihály von Munkácsy , 1895

With the battle cry “We are hungry!”, A papyrus by the writer Amun-Nechet reports on the first known strike in history, the strike of Deir el-Medineh . The workers employed in the construction of the royal tombs in Thebes-West in ancient Egypt laid on 10 Peret II (November 4) 1159 BC. In the 29th year of the reign of Pharaoh Ramses III. down because they hadn't been paid with their grain deposit for eighteen days.

The first reported strike in the Holy Roman Empire is backed up by a document from 1329: At that time, the Gürtler companions in Wroclaw went on strike for a year.

Strikes in modern industrial societies

Flyer from November 1896
on the Hamburg port workers strike
with instructions on how to behave
and what the strike cards mean

Due to the persistent conflict between capital and labor as a stable large social group, strikes as a form of representation of interests prevailed to a large extent during the industrial revolution, although the state tried again and again to declare them illegal.

For Germany, industrialization began in the middle of the 19th century, while in England and France it took place a few decades earlier and, accordingly, strikes there have a longer history. An early strike in Germany was the textile workers' strike in the Lennep district in 1850 . He became a pioneer, although in the 1850s trade unions and union-like associations were banned: In 1857 alone, 41 strikes were counted in Germany. When the fighting increased in the 1860s, the repression against the trade unions and the labor movement could no longer be sustained. The three-penny strike of the Leipzig book printer journeyman in 1863 contributed to the establishment of the union .

In the early days of the 1870s, the good economic situation combined with a further surge in industrialization led to a new wave of strikes. After France and England, Germany had risen to become the third industrial power on the continent, and accordingly strikes and conflicts between capital and the labor movement became a mass phenomenon. The individual strikes also grew: around 7,000 workers took part in the Waldenburg miners' strike in 1869/70. In 1872 there were at least 362 strikes with around 100,000 participants.

The call of the workers' movement for an improvement in the largely unregulated legal status of workers became louder and louder - the first successes were recorded: in the spring of 1873 the printers were already successfully fighting over a collective agreement. The first successes of strikes and workers 'movements led to a counter-reaction from the state: In 1878, on the initiative of Bismarck, the so-called socialist laws were passed, with which both workers' parties and trade unions were banned. It was hoped that this would help suppress strikes and wage demands. At the same time, the first social legislation measures were implemented as a strategy of integration.

The struggle of the workers for better living conditions could not simply be forbidden - strikes occurred again and again despite the prohibition. During the further history of the empire there were major strikes, especially in the Ruhr mining industry, because here the entrepreneurs refused to accept any form of compromise. Under the sharp anti-union stance of the mining companies, two area-wide strikes escalated into civil war-like clashes in 1889 and 1905 . Almost all miners in the Ruhr area, around 90,000 people, took part in the strike of 1889 without a central strike call. A military intervention, which is not uncommon for the authoritarian state, resulted in eleven dead and two dozen wounded as victims in the first week of the strike. Despite the bloody crackdown, this strike was not unsuccessful either: it led to the formation of the first trade unions in the Ruhr area, and it also played a key role in bringing down the Socialist Act imposed under Bismarck: in 1890, trade unions and workers' parties could again appear legally.

The May fights in Hamburg in 1890, after their failure, severely weakened the local trade union movement, at the same time they contributed to the centralization of the organization at the national level. Also in Hamburg in 1896 a seamen and port workers' strike expanded into a regional general strike , in which up to 16,000 people took part and which lasted 11 weeks ( Hamburg port workers strike 1896/97 ). The 1903/04 Crimmitschau strike of textile workers had a considerable influence on the formation of central employers' associations . The coal carriers 'strike in Berlin-Moabit in September 1910 because of a rejected wage claim was bloody. Negotiations with workers' representatives were rejected and mediation proposals were unsuccessful. There was street fighting; the use of the police became increasingly brutal. Both the strikers and the police were injured and one person died.

In England , after earlier minor labor disputes, the great dock workers' strike in London attracted considerable public interest. The strike lasted from August 15 to September 16, 1889. The workers demanded an hourly wage of 6  pence and a minimum wage of 2  shillings per day. The up to 180,000 strikers were able to prevail in the end after the bishop and the Lord Mayor of London as well as Cardinal Manning mediated the conflict with the company managers of the docks. On March 15, 1890, over 200,000 miners in Yorkshire and other coal districts followed the example of the dock workers, who were satisfied with a small increase in wages after five days.

In the 19th century , the strike established itself as one of the most important methods of representing the interests of industrial workers and miners in particular. Work stoppages were spontaneous at first before they were institutionalized by the unions. The strikes essentially followed the economic cycle: In times of crisis the number of strikes fell, while in times of economic boom the number of labor disputes and strikes increased. One of the most momentous strikes was the miners 'strike of 1889 in the Ruhr area, which triggered the founding of the miners' unions .

Strike, painting by Stanisław Lentz , 1910

Beyond the economic sphere, the labor movement has also been discussing strikes to achieve political goals since the First World War . The mass strike debate in German social democracy before the First World War ended with a formula compromise that was more like a rejection. During the First World War, the hitherto customary economic-related conduct of labor disputes was broken. Against the background of the lack of supplies and the war fatigue, the first politically motivated strikes against the war took place during this period. Further strikes followed in the November Revolution, such as the January fighting in 1919 and the March strikes in 1919 with their demand for the socialization of industry. Both movements were bloodily suppressed. After the First World War, the frequency and duration of labor disputes were again essentially in line with the business cycle. An exception was the general strike of the workers, Professional Employees organizations during the Kapp Putsch in 1920. By contrast, work stoppages had to repel the Nazis during the Great Depression because of mass unemployment without success.

Great Britain

The long-term cycles of strikes are closely related to the structure of a country's social conditions, as the example of Great Britain shows. In contrast to Germany, there was no comprehensive state social legislation for a long time, which made strikes necessary as a means of self-help. In Great Britain there was a nationwide general strike in 1926 (May 4 to 12) . The British trade union confederation ( Trades Union Congress ) called for this after a lockout of the miners by the mine owners who wanted to push through wage cuts and working hours extensions. The government used the army. Social struggles and strikes reached their climax in the Great Depression of the 1930s, but subsided during the Second World War . However, political pressure had increased to such an extent that the British Labor government had to start building a comprehensive welfare state at the end of the 1940s - one component of which was the NHS (National Healthcare System).

It was only when these institutions came under attack during the reign of Margaret Thatcher that strikes began to accumulate again and were conducted with increasing vigor. For almost a year - from December 1, 1978 to November 12, 1979 - z. B. the newspaper The Times because of a labor dispute, which had ignited by the planned job cuts through the modernization of the printing company, not.

In the early 1980s, the Aslef train drivers' union protested against the introduction of flexible working hours requested by British Rail (then a state-owned company). Finally, British Rail issued an ultimatum: all strikers would be fired if Aslef members did not show up for service on electric and diesel locomotives. Aslef gave in. The Financial Times attested the Prime Minister a "success of spectacular proportions".

However, the British miners' strike in 1984/1985 became the decisive battle between the government and its plans for an economically liberal restructuring of society with the abolition of welfare state regulations . Despite a wave of solidarity in all parts of the country and all strata of the population that has hardly been known since the 1930s, the strike was ultimately lost because the government had secretly built up coal reserves. The defeat permanently reduced the power of the British unions and damaged the self-confidence of the labor movement .

However, this development could neither end the social conflicts nor abolish strikes: England experienced another large wave of strikes in national rail traffic in 1994/1995. First the switchmen went on strike, then the train drivers.

Right to strike in the GDR

The GDR constitution of October 1949 guaranteed the trade unions' right to strike in Article 14, Paragraph 2. However, the FDGB rejected every strike in the state-owned economy, since it was of the opinion that the strike in the GDR was a strike against the workers themselves because the people were in possession of the means of production . The Labor Code (GBA) of April 1961 no longer mentioned the right to strike, nor did the Labor Code (AGB) that came into force in January 1978 . There was also no constitutionally guaranteed right to strike in the rest of the rest of the Eastern bloc of socialist states.

Strikes in Germany after 1945

Demonstration in front of the Cologne press building during the printer strike in 1973

In Germany, too, the welfare state and waves of strikes were closely linked. The first major strike movements of the post-war period were the so-called Stuttgart incidents of 1948, in which a one-day general strike against the currency reform and the abolition of price restrictions drove almost 10 million workers to stoppage - it was the first and largest general strike in West German history. In Stuttgart, the strikers finally faced the US occupation forces, which also had tanks deployed. However, there was no escalation, but concessions had to be made, which is considered to be the origin of the “ social market economy ”.

This movement found its counterpart in the GDR in the uprising of the GDR workers on June 17, 1953 , in which the working population resisted an increase in labor standards. This strike was crushed by Soviet troops, but it was successful in the economic field: the increase in norms was withdrawn by the government.

In the further course of history there were no general strikes of this magnitude in either East or West Germany. However, there were numerous supraregional labor disputes in West Germany over wage issues and welfare state benefits, while in the GDR, a combination of prohibition, repression and social policy meant that strikes decreased more and more and became a local special phenomenon. The strike over sick pay in 1956/57 developed into the longest labor dispute in West Germany since 1905. It was carried out by IG Metall on behalf of the Schleswig-Holstein collective bargaining district. It began on October 24, 1956 and ended on February 9, 1957. After 114 days, more than 34,000 workers in the metal industry struck a collective agreement that put workers on an equal footing with employees in the event of illness, as their wages in the event of illness for a while (most recently 6 Weeks) continued to be paid. The agreement reached later became the basis of a legal regulation.

A novelty for Germany were the two waves of spontaneous (" wild ") strikes in September 1969 with 140,000 participants and in May to October 1973 with around 275,000 participants. They challenged the trade unions for their monopoly on militant lobbying and strike organization.

IG Metall led large-scale strikes lasting several weeks to raise wages in 1951 (Hesse), 1954 (Bavaria), 1963 (Baden-Württemberg), 1971 (Baden-Württemberg), 1974 (Unterweser), 1995 (Bavaria), and furthermore in 1973 (Baden -Württemberg), among other things, about the " Steinkühlerpause ", 1978 (Baden-Württemberg) for a security collective agreement against wage demolition, 1978/79 (North Rhine-Westphalian steel industry) about a reduction in working hours (first attempt at the 35-hour week ). Employers responded to some of these strikes with large-scale lockouts .

In February 1974 the public service in West Germany went on strike for three days and thus achieved an 11% wage increase.

First more extensive FAZ emergency edition from July 1, 1984 after a three-week strike in a much smaller Berlin format

In July 1984 there was a double strike by IG Metall in the electrical and metal industry and IG Druck und Papier in the printing industry with the goal of a 35-hour week. Both unions achieved an initial reduction in weekly working hours to 38.5 hours; only in the later years did they gradually reach the 35-hour week. In May 1992 there was a labor dispute by the ÖTV.

The strike organized by IG Metall in May 2003 to introduce the 35-hour week in the electrical and metalworking industry in East Germany failed; only in the steel industry was the 35-hour week gradually introduced. On January 9, 2004, 50 employees of Herweg-Busbetriebe , a subsidiary of Leverkusener Kraftverkehr Wupper-Sieg (KWS), went on strike against low wages. This strike lasted until February 8, 2005, i.e. 395 days, making it one of the longest strikes in Germany's history. The strike at the German catering company GateGourmet at Düsseldorf Airport , a subsidiary of the Texas Pacific Group , of the food-pleasure-restaurants union, lasted six months from October 7, 2005 .

Strike posters at the AEG plant in Nuremberg in February 2006

After the plant was threatened to close, AEG Nuremberg employees went on strike for four weeks in 2006 for a social collective agreement with generous severance payments.

In the summer and autumn of 2007 , the employees of Deutsche Bahn AG, organized in the union of German locomotive drivers, struck several times for up to 30 hours. During this time, Deutsche Bahn obtained several interim injunctions before labor courts that prohibited or restricted strikes. On November 2, 2007, the State Labor Court of Saxony, in an urgent decision, overturned a labor court ruling that banned strikes in freight and long-distance rail transport. This provisionally concluded that the right to strike enjoys a high level of protection under the constitution and that the principle, which has been partially developed in case law, that there should only be one collective agreement per company, is repealed.

In the autumn of 2014, the German Train Drivers' Union struck again for, among other things, collective agreements for train drivers and train attendants. In court, Deutsche Bahn wanted to ban the strikes by means of an injunction, but failed in the first and second instance. The railway has suffered damage of around 100 million euros so far.

Forms of strike

There are three forms of strike: cessation of work , go- slow strike, and duty-to-rule . The strike in the strict sense is the collective attitude to work. Work is ceased if employees do not appear at the workplace or do appear there but do not start work ( sit-in strike ). In the case of a slow strike, there is a poor performance of the duty to work; The service according to regulations leads to the disruption of the work flow or to the standstill of the operation through the meticulous observance of regulations .

Another distinction is made according to

  • Motive for strike: protest strike, sympathy strike, warning strike;
  • Type of implementation: general strike, full or partial strike, focus strike, slow strike.
Strike cards
  • Defense strike : preventing deterioration in working conditions or social security
  • Operating strike : Captures employees of a particular operation
  • Lightning strike: Work stoppage organized at very short notice without the usual prior notice a few days in advance
  • Go slow: work is slower than normal
  • Duty to rule : civil servants take regulations more precisely, which means they work more slowly
  • General strike : strike by all workers in an economy
  • Organized Strike : Union-approved strike
  • Political strike : Strikes against or for political goals, are forbidden in Germany; partially allowed in other countries
  • Protest strike : Temporary, directed against a specific incident
  • Point strike (also: rolling strike ): Departments or production sites are alternately on strike
  • Main strike: Workers from selected companies in an economic sector or, in the event of a strike in a single company, workers from important departments strike
  • Solidarity strike (also: sympathy strike ): To express solidarity for colleagues from another company
  • Partial strike: only certain groups of workers or company departments strike
  • Full strike (also: area strike): Strike of all employees in an economic sector
  • Warning strike : Short or limited strike in Germany without a strike vote possible
  • Wildcat strike : A strike without union support , often, but not necessarily, spontaneous and disorganized.

Legal issues

Striking teamsters in armed street fighting with police units in Minneapolis , 1934

General

The Basic Law (GG) explicitly protects labor disputes in Article 9, Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law, which are conducted “to safeguard and promote working and economic conditions”. Article 9 (3) of the Basic Law does not guarantee a fundamental right to strike, detached from its functional reference to collective bargaining autonomy . In principle, all employees have the right to strike. Excluded from the right to strike, only the officials , judges and soldiers , so that the public service employees employed ( employees and workers ) and all workers from the private sector are to strike. In church institutions, unions are not allowed to call for a strike if they are organizationally involved in a labor law regulation process and the result of the negotiations is binding as a minimum working condition for the employer.

Employers can respond to strikes with lockouts and shutdowns . In March 1994, the Federal Labor Court (BAG) expanded the “arsenal” of the employers' means of industrial action with the right to shut down a company or to partially shut down a company in industrial action. According to this, the employer is not obliged to maintain production as much as possible in a company or part of the company that has been on strike. He can shut it down completely for the duration of the strike, with the result that the mutual rights and obligations from the employment relationship are suspended and even employees willing to work lose their wage entitlement.

Wages

During a lawful industrial action, the strike legitimate workers are due to the right to strike right to their job performance to refuse and from their obligation to work freed. However, according expires § 615 BGB , the right to remuneration . If the operational disruption is due to the strike of other employees in the same company (partial strike), the affected employees lose their right to remuneration. To compensate for this loss of earnings are available for union members strike benefits from the strike fund of the trade unions .

Official strike

A strike by civil servants is inadmissible under both administrative and constitutional law . The strike ban can also be derived from Section 61 (1) BBG . Inadmissible also strike measures similar to the go-slow (are English go slow ) or working to rule , by exaggerated compliance of a refusal to work comes close. Strike-like collective measures, which are expressed in the form of reduced work performance or unjustified absenteeism , also violate the obligation to conscientiously exercise one's office.

In its judgment of June 2018 (“teachers' strikes ”), the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) confirmed that the strike ban for civil servants is an independent traditional principle of the civil service within the meaning of Article 33 (5) of the Basic Law. It fulfills the requirements of traditionality and substantiality necessary for a qualification as a traditional principle. The strike ban for civil servants is to be observed by the legislature as a traditional principle of the professional civil service. It shows a close connection with the civil servant law alimentation principle, the duty of loyalty, the lifetime principle as well as the principle of the regulation of the civil service legal relationship including the salary by the legislature.

General strike

The general strike is a strike action by the entire workforce in a country or region. Towards the end of the 19th century, the growing international labor movement favored the general strike for the implementation of economic or political goals.

Political strike

A political strike is characterized by the fact that the person directly affected economically is the employer, but the target of the strike is a state organ . The political strike is divided into the forced strike and the demonstration strike . While the enforcement strike aims to enforce the political demand, the demonstration strike is a political expression of opinion without enforcement intent. The general strike against the Kapp Putsch in March 1920 was a successful enforcement strike. It is viewed as unlawful under constitutional , labor and tort law because it constitutes a violation of the constitutional order of state decision-making ( Article 20, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law). The political demonstration strike is viewed by the prevailing opinion as not being covered by Article 9 (3) of the Basic Law.

School strike

A school strike is colloquially a refusal to attend school by pupils , usually combined with demonstrations during class time to achieve political goals. Since students are not doing any work that they could withhold, it is not a strike. Since the school or its sponsors are not excluded from business dealings, there is no boycott .

Force majeure

Strikes are considered outside the parties to the strike (i.e. trade unions, employers and employees) as force majeure such as storms or other natural disasters , for example in the case of a contract between a consumer and an airline on strike . The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) classifies the threat of a strike as an event that the aviation company cannot control. The threat of strike by the union comes from outside and usually does not come from inside the company. A strike is also outside the normal course of business of the company. Labor disputes are unpredictable in their course and are therefore outside the regulatory contexts that can be controlled by the airline company. According to the BGH, the legislature took into account the aspect of inevitability inherent in the concept of force majeure in such a way that extraordinary circumstances did not per se lead to the loss of the obligation to compensate.

If the consumer has purchased a ticket in advance during a strike at Deutsche Bahn and the strike takes place on the scheduled day of travel, the passenger is entitled to a partial refund of the ticket price of up to 50 percent depending on the delay. According to this, a railway company is not entitled to include a clause in its General Conditions of Carriage according to which it is exempt from its obligation to pay fare compensation in the event of delays if the delay is due to force majeure. However, in the future, the railway will no longer have to pay compensation in the event of force majeure, because the future Art. 17 Paragraph 8 Passenger Rights Regulation will read: “A railway company is not obliged to pay compensation if it can prove that the delay is bad Weather conditions or major natural disasters were caused that jeopardized the safe operation of the transport service and which could not have been foreseen or prevented even if all reasonable measures had been taken. "In sympathy strikes, employees can stop work for colleagues on strike without themselves to be directly involved in the labor dispute.

For vacation packages that can tour operator force majeure at any time prior to departure from the Travel contract resign ( § 651H BGB). If during the trip the transport of the traveler to the place of departure or to another place that the contracting parties have agreed on (return transport) is covered by the contract and is not possible due to unavoidable, extraordinary circumstances, the tour operator shall bear the costs for a necessary one Accommodation for the traveler for a period of no more than three nights, if possible in accommodation that is equivalent to that agreed in the travel contract ( § 651k Paragraph 4 BGB).

Other legal issues

According to the Federal Labor Court, anyone who resigns his job to put pressure on the employer is not acting in breach of duty if he participates in a strike organized by a trade union . Conversely, the share may on a non-organized by a union strike damages trigger requirements and / or Dismissal serve basic. However, even in the case of a BAG-compliant strike, employees are not entitled to wages or salaries for the period of their participation . Union members receive strike pay during this period .

In order for the union-organized strike to be considered lawful by the labor courts , certain conditions must be met. Strikes for higher wages are not permitted during the term of a collective agreement ( peace obligation ). In the case law it is also regularly required that a strike is proportionate and, in a specific case, only used as a last resort.

Non-union strikes are often colloquially referred to as “wildcat strikes”. Despite the above-mentioned risks (reason for termination, liability for damages), they are used as weapons, even if declared differently (e.g. as company information events), as in October 2004 at Opel in Bochum . In 1975/76 a so-called wildcat strike and an accompanying occupation in a cement factory in Erwitte lasted 449 days. Both the strike and the company's countermeasures ( layoffs ) were later rejected as illegal by the Federal Labor Court. Its case law was often subject to strong fluctuations on such issues.

Information poster about a warning strike
Littered garbage due to the garbage disposal strike ( Mannheim 2006)

When workers stop working for a short period of time during collective bargaining , it is called a warning strike . It must be distinguished from normal strikes, which only take place after the current collective agreement has expired. If the collective bargaining is officially declared to have failed and - in most collective bargaining areas - the arbitration verdict of a neutral arbitration commission has been rejected, the peace obligation expires . The initiation of a strike also requires a strike resolution from the main board on the union side. As a rule, a ballot is also held beforehand , in which 75% of the union members concerned have to vote in favor of the strike.

There are usually so-called pickets at the gates of the factories on strike . On the one hand, these are intended to express that the company is on strike, and on the other hand, they are intended to discourage employees who are willing to work. This is generally permissible, but no longer justified by the right to strike if the employees willing to work are illegally compelled to stay away by pressure (especially physical means). Workers who nonetheless work in the company on strike are referred to as strike breakers by the strikers . You will occasionally receive what is known as a strike breaker bonus from your employer, the legality of which is controversial.

In some strikes, for example strikes by contract doctors, the strikers set up an emergency service so that the strike does not endanger life or health.

With reference to the church's constitutional right to self-determination and the procedure of negotiation in equal commissions with arbitration procedures practiced in the church area, it is disputed that the workers of the churches and their charitable institutions have the right to strike. This corresponds to the previous highest court rulings and was most recently confirmed by the Mannheim Labor Court. It is also the view of the prevailing opinion in the literature. On the other hand, Harald Schliemann , President of the ecclesiastical court of the Evangelical Church in Germany and judge at the Federal Labor Court a. D. the ban on strikes, which church employers repeatedly claimed, for legal nonsense. Employees of diaconal organizations took part in strikes in 2001 in Vlotho , 2007 in Stuttgart , 2008 in Bielefeld , Mosbach , Hanover , 2011 in Hamburg , Oldenburg (Oldenburg) , Hanover and 2012 in Bückeburg , Esslingen am Neckar , Gifhorn , Heidelberg and Mannheim without any legal disputes part.

Overall, an increase in the willingness to strike can be observed during economic recoveries: According to the Institute of the German Economy , there were fewer than 20,000 days lost due to strikes in Germany in 2005, around 430,000 in 2006 and already 500,000 in the first half of 2007.

International

France

In France , the right to strike is enshrined in the constitution as an individual fundamental right. While political strikes are officially illegal, strikes against certain social and economic issues are not considered political strikes. Strikes directed against the state in its function as an employer are also legitimate. In the public service sector, it is regulated by law that only representative trade unions may call for strikes. During a strike, the employment contract is suspended and workers are not paid for the duration of the strike.

Greece

There is no peace obligation in Greece . Wildcat strikes and purely political strikes are formally illegal. A recognized union must call a strike. Individuals and unorganized groups of workers are not allowed to call for strikes. A general assembly of the union must have taken place at least 24 hours before the start of the strike. The constitution states: "Strike is a right that legally formed unions can exercise to protect the economic and general labor interests of working people."

Italy

In Italy , the strike is defined as a collectively exercised individual right of employees and it is accorded constitutional status (Art. 40). Any group of employees, trade unions or company interest groups can call for a strike (direct or solidarity strike ). The political strike is also legitimate, with two exceptions. A political strike must not be against the democratic form of government as such or against the constitution. A strike vote is not required. Wildcat strikes are permissible but rarely take place. Since 1990, restrictions have also applied to parts of the public service.

Switzerland

The Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation of April 18, 1999 recognizes the right to strike . In its Article 28 on freedom of association , Paragraph 3 stipulates : "Strikes and lockouts are permissible if they concern industrial relations and if there are no obligations to maintain industrial peace or to conduct arbitration negotiations ."

In Switzerland , industrial peace applies in some important branches of the economy . It is based on a peace agreement between employers 'and workers' associations from 1937. Nevertheless, in March 2008 there was a strike at the SBB Officine in Bellinzona , which began as a wildcat strike, was then supported by the local union and with a partial success Worker ended.

Strikes also often occur in connection with the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements, which can then be declared binding for entire industries. In sectors in which there are no collective labor agreements, efforts are being made to improve working conditions to some extent.

There is no law that regulates the framework for a strike. However, a federal court ruling states that four conditions must be met for a strike. The strike must be borne by an organization that is able to pay a collective agreement and pursue goals that can be regulated by means of collective labor agreements. Furthermore, it must not violate the peace obligation and also not be disproportionate.

In Switzerland between 1996 and 2008, strikes averaged a little more than five times a year. This means that 2.9 working days were lost per 1000 employees, compared to 3.7 working days in Germany and 1.1 working days in Austria in the same period.

Austria

The situation in Austria with the so-called social partnership is very similar .

International regulations

Council of Europe and European Court of Human Rights

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights in such a way that Art. 11 HRC includes a right to collective bargaining on working conditions and a right to strike, which is only generally excluded for members of the armed forces, the police and the state administration can. (See also: section "Right to strike for civil servants" .)

European Union

Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union , Article 28 (Right to collective bargaining and collective action) states:

In accordance with Union law and national laws and practices, workers and employers or their respective organizations have the right to negotiate and conclude collective agreements at the appropriate levels and, in the event of conflicts of interest, to take collective action to defend their interests, including strikes . With regard to social labor law , the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) stipulates that the European Union has no competences in the areas of wages, the right to form associations, the right to strike and the right to lock out ( Art. 153 (5) TFEU).

International labor organization

The right to organize is enshrined in the core labor standards of the International Labor Organization : Conventions “87 - Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize” and “98 - Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining” include the right of workers to organize themselves in trade unions. The extent to which Convention 87 also includes the trade unions' right to strike is a matter of dispute, with employers' and workers' organizations having represented different views on this since the 1990s.

Debate about political strikes

Historically, it is hardly possible to completely separate “political” and “economic” strikes - from the 1848 revolution on, work stoppages were repeatedly associated with, in the broader sense, political demands that went beyond wage increases. They ranged from democratic suffrage to social policy measures and the socialization of key industries. Political strikes in dictatorships or against coups d'état against existing democracies can contribute to the development of democratic conditions or to the preservation of democracy: for example, the general strike called on behalf of Reich President Friedrich Ebert after the Kapp Putsch in 1920 (which was against the democratically elected government of the SPD , Center and DDP under Gustav Bauer (SPD) helped to crack down on the coup and defend the still young democratic constitution. The armed workers and communist fighting units were able to thwart the attempted coup with a general strike. The August strikes in Poland in 1980 led to the recognition of an opposition in socialism with the August Agreement .

However, although strikes have been linked to such political objectives again and again in Germany, this form of “political strike” has always been controversial. On the one hand there were debates within the labor movement about the effectiveness of “ mass strikes ”, on the other hand employers and state representatives always argued that strikes are either illegitimate in themselves or should at least be limited to economic goals. After the last major political general strike in West Germany in 1948 had led to the development of a social market economy, there were again protest strikes in 1952 against the impending parliamentary adoption of the Works Constitution Act, which aimed at expanding company co-determination, but largely failed. It was only as a result of this failure that the view of the illegitimacy of political strikes was enforced in Germany. As a non-collective labor dispute, the prevailing opinion regards the demonstration dispute as not covered by Article 9 (3) of the Basic Law. As part of the fundamental right to freedom of expression, brief political demonstration strikes are not subject to criminal sanctions for coercion of a constitutional body, but they can result in a civil law claim for damages on the part of the employer due to a breach of an employment contract. The justification for the prohibition of political strikes is that in a representative democracy the political will-making decision by the organs provided for this purpose is to be made free of constraints in the constitutionally provided procedure. For this reason, the Basic Law in Article 9 (3) of the Basic Law explicitly protects labor disputes that are carried out “to maintain and promote working and economic conditions”. It would also contradict the principle of democracy if the trade unions could push through political demands that are not shared by a majority in parliament.

However, this interpretation is quite controversial. The compatibility of the ban on political strikes in Germany with international and European law is questioned. The right to strike in the framework of several international agreements, but also in the context of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, is not handled as restrictively as in Germany. However, German courts have not yet had to deal with this due to a lack of cause. In addition to the ver.di trade union and IG BAU , Die Linke is demanding the right to strike politically from the parties represented in the German Bundestag . The GEW also spoke out in favor of the political strike at its trade union day in 2013. The Friends of Nature Youth in Germany joined this position on the 2015 Federal Committee.

In France and Italy, on the other hand, the strike is guaranteed by the constitution as an individual right, regardless of organization, and is a recognized expression of political will also against parliament and government. Political strikes are not only legal here, but are also regularly used as a means of political confrontation: the Paris riots in May 1968 and the subsequent general strike led to new elections , wage increases and university reform in France. There have also been several general strikes recently.

Based on Rosa Luxemburg , one can differentiate between different ideal types of strike, but in reality they often overlap. With regard to the direction, economic and political strikes can be differentiated. With regard to the scope of a strike, the sectoral strike differs from the cross-sectoral or national general strike. With regard to the function of a strike, a distinction can be made between an offensive strike, in which self-chosen goals are to be achieved (e.g. a reduction in working hours ) and a defensive industrial action aimed at warding off economic or political deterioration. In addition, strikes can take different forms. The combat strike differs from the demonstration strike, which is called selectively for a certain period of time, in that it is carried out for an indefinite period until the goal is reached.

This classification makes it clear that the terms political strike and general strike, which are often used synonymously in everyday use, do not have the same meaning. A general strike can, but does not have to be, political. Conceivable is z. B. a sectoral strike aimed at economic goals, which develops into a general strike.

If one wishes to transfer the subdivision to the strikes in southern Europe , which increased in the 2000s and 2010s , these mostly had the character of defensive political general strikes in the form of demonstration strikes . Some examples are given below:

On May 6, 2011, 58% of the workforce in Italy followed the call for a general political strike against the economic policy of the Berlusconi government .

On September 6, 2011, a general political strike took place in Italy against the austerity package of the Berlusconi government , in Article 8 of which the company negotiating level was to be equated with the national collective agreement .

Between 1980 and 2011, 49 nationwide cross-industry political strikes took place in Greece . 11 of these took place between the start of the austerity measures in 2009 and February 2011.

In Spain, a nationwide general strike took place on September 29, 2010, which was directed against a package of cuts and legislative proposals to deregulate the labor market by the Zapatero government.

On November 14, 2012, workers in Spain and Portugal went on a general strike simultaneously for the first time. This was directed against the austerity policy of the ECB, IMF and EU Commission.

Right to strike for civil servants

In many states, civil servants also have the right to strike. In Germany civil servants are not granted the right to strike under current law. In Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate, the ban on strikes is regulated by law, and in Saarland even in the constitution. In contrast, the Hessian constitution puts civil servants on an equal footing with workers and employees who have the right to strike. However, here too the principle of federal law breaks state law ( Art. 31 GG). Otherwise, the strike ban is viewed as a traditional principle of civil service protected by the Basic Law ( Article 33 (5) of the Basic Law). However, this strike ban does not apply indefinitely. So it is inadmissible to use civil servants as strike breakers .

However, the European Court of Human Rights has granted Turkish officials the right to join a trade union and conclude collective agreements, as well as the right to strike in principle. Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike. It is completely unclear what conclusions can be drawn from this for German law; only a corresponding judgment against the Federal Republic would clarify this.

Citing the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, according to which the imposition of disciplinary measures against certain groups of civil servants, in particular teachers, for participating in strikes violates the freedom of association guaranteed in the European Convention on Human Rights, individual courts have ruled in the first instance for teachers who are involved in strikes had participated and were disciplined for it (the judgments are not final). The Bremen Administrative Court , on the other hand, considered a disciplinary reprimand against several civil servant teachers who had participated in a warning strike to be lawful. The Federal Administrative Court confirmed the ban on strikes for civil servants in Germany in 2014 and the Federal Constitutional Court in 2018 in view of the conflict between the ECHR and German constitutional law.

Labor dispute between judges and officials through demonstration in Germany

Around 500 judges and prosecutors described their demonstration in Düsseldorf on October 13, 2007, not as a strike, but as a protest against the salary policy of the NRW state government. The demonstrators protested that their salaries had not been increased for four years and that they had 1,500 jobs in the judiciary were on the cross-off list. Judges also protest in the streets in North Rhine-Westphalia after zero wages in judge's robes. This is a constitutional dispute under remuneration law with the resignation request to the Prime Minister.

After the second round of negotiations in the collective bargaining dispute between the trade unions and the employers of the federal government and municipalities was postponed without result on March 21, 2014 in Potsdam, officials demonstrated on March 24, 2014 in Berlin-Mitte for their demands.

Strikes outside of work

Strikes outside of working life are forms of protest and boycott that use the term strike in a figurative sense. Not the collective withholding of contractually agreed work, but the targeted refusal to participate in normal processes or events or their conscious prevention, is the weapon with which those involved make certain demands clear or want to emphasize them. During student protests , for example, university operations and lectures are often hit. The boycott and the purchase-nothing-day represent a consumption strike . In the birthing strike , the refusal to procreate and give birth is used as a means of political pressure. From a political point of view, the hunger strike also belongs in this category, as does the doctors' strike in terms of health policy.

economic aspects

A strike has a direct impact on the companies on strike . There, there are interruptions in the production process and total or partial production downtime, which results in declines in sales and profit or even losses. Due to interdependencies ( e.g. between upstream suppliers , sub-suppliers and the manufacturing industry ), a strike is often not restricted to one branch of the economy , but later spreads to other branches ( transfer effect ). A general strike immediately paralyzes the entire economy . There may be supply bottlenecks, which can be accompanied by price increases or hamster purchases . The consequence is a decline in gross domestic product in strike-happy countries and thus a deterioration in economic indicators .

statistics

In Germany fell from 2005 to 2012 an average of 16 man-days per year per thousand employees due to strikes from. In France this value is 139 person-days, followed by Denmark (117), Canada (104), Finland (84), Belgium (73), Spain (65) and Norway (59). There is little strike in the USA (10), the Netherlands (9), Sweden (6), Austria (2) or in Switzerland (1).

Use of the term strike in other forms of protest

Compulsory arbitration

In states with no or limited right to strike , use is made of the means of compulsory arbitration , in which the parties to the conflict must recognize or acknowledge the decision of a jointly determined arbitrator from the outset.

Strike in the media

  • Statschka [strike], directed by Sergeij M. Eisenstein, USSR 1924
  • Brothers, directed by Werner Hochbaum, Germany 1929 - About the general strike in the port of Hamburg in 1896/97
  • Salt of the Earth, directed by Herbert J. Biberman, USA 1953, Long strike of the miners in Silver City
  • La Reprise du travail aux usines Wonder, directed by Jacques Willemont France 1968 - short film about the resumption of work after May 68
  • Harlan County USA , directed by Barbara Kopple, USA 1976
  • Facing Reality - Site Security Strike (2004, 11 min, German). Short documentary about the wildcat strike in October 2004 at Opel Bochum 106 MB, MPEG, downloadable
  • The television film Shada from the Doctor Who series could not be completed due to a strike in the studios and remained a fragment. Basically only the exterior shots were finished. On the videotape with the fragment, the strike is called “industrial action”.
  • 7 days in October, documentary film about the strike of the Bochum Opel workforce in October 2004
  • “It's not just about our skin”. The strike of the workforce at the Bosch Siemens home appliance factory in Berlin against the closure, director: Holger Wegemann, Germany 2007, description.
  • We Want Sex (Original title: Made in Dagenham) is a British film by director Nigel Cole from 2010. The topic is the enforcement of fair wages for women in the English automotive industry (Equal Pay) and thus the question of the willingness to strike and the union organization by women.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Strike  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Strike  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
 Wikinews: Category: Strike  - in the news

Individual evidence

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  67. Gallas, Nowak, Wilde: Acting from the defensive. An overview of political strikes in Europe with case studies on France and the UK . In: Alexander Gallas, Jörg Nowak, Florian Wilde (Eds.): Political Strikes in Europe of Crisis . Hamburg 2012, p. 26.
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  75. Art. 115 para. 5 of the Saarland Constitution of December 15, 1947; Section 3 (4) of the Rhineland-Palatinate Civil Service Act of April 28, 1951; Section 63 (2) of the Bavarian Civil Service Act of July 18, 1960.
  76. Art. 29 Hessian Constitution of 1946.
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  80. Officials are allowed to strike! ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Education and Science, 11/2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gew.de
  81. For example VG Düsseldorf, decision of December 15, 2010 , Az. 31 K 3904 / 10.O, full text; VG Kassel, judgments of July 27, 2011 , Az. 28 K 574 / 10.KS.D and 28 K 1208 / 10.KS.D, full text.
  82. Bremen Administrative Court, judgment of July 3, 2012, DK 20/11.
  83. Federal Constitutional Court confirms ban on strikes for civil servants
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  86. ^ Judges are suspicious of the state government after the zero-round dispute . derwesten.de, July 6, 2014.
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  88. Hedwig Eschbacher, The strike as a trade union weapon , 1927, p. 56
  89. statista The statistics portal, number of working days lost each year due to strikes , accessed on October 9, 2018.
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