First a three-day strike at the beginning of January, now an unprecedented six-day strike: German train drivers' actions will hit companies, ports and consumers alike. But what are the actual consequences?
Any worker has the right to strike. If what is affected is critical infrastructure then the government has to step in on the side of the workers to force a settlement.
Just because you want unlimited flow of treats does not mean laborers should not be able to fight for better working conditions
Civil servants don’t have that right in Germany, at the utmost they can work to rule. OTOH you practically can’t be fired, you can’t be laid off, you get a cushy pension and the state is legally required to have good working conditions, and courts will enforce it for you.
There’s a reason that all those civil servants the DB inherited when it got privatised are still civil servants: The status is actually quite nice. Same goes for Deutsche Post and Telekom, they also still have tons of civil servants they, as private companies, have to treat like the state treats other civil servants.
Oh, side tidbit: Civil servants don’t get days off. They get ordered to recuperate.
Article from 2018 says biggest groups are 4200 engine drivers, 3600 traffic controllers and 1700 station service. Of 38000 civil servants 26500 in active duty (i.e not in pension), including 3500 suspended and currently working for more wages as managers.
Numbers certainly changed in six years but I wouldn’t expect much drift in the ratios, it’s not like engine drivers are on average older than traffic controllers or such.
2007 the DB had 20000 engine drivers, 8000 of which were civil servants. So maybe 3000 left now?
To add to the absurdity of it, when the leaders of the Bahn announced first that the demand fo the traindrivers is inacceptable as their is no money available, they just had increased their salaries by millions.
Beamte can effectively strike, too. It’s called Dienst nach Vorschrift (duty by the letter).
They follow every regulation to the letter, which grinds everything to a halt, and there’s hardly anything anyone can do about it since they’re unfirable.
To counter that, the state just pays them well enough so they don’t need to strike.
To this day that company never healed from the Beamtentum and never will. Beamte are a horrible solution to anything and should only be a last resort, e.g. for the critical part of infrastructure as the railroad network. Not for the garbage companies operating on it.
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Any worker has the right to strike. If what is affected is critical infrastructure then the government has to step in on the side of the workers to force a settlement.
Just because you want unlimited flow of treats does not mean laborers should not be able to fight for better working conditions
Civil servants don’t have that right in Germany, at the utmost they can work to rule. OTOH you practically can’t be fired, you can’t be laid off, you get a cushy pension and the state is legally required to have good working conditions, and courts will enforce it for you.
There’s a reason that all those civil servants the DB inherited when it got privatised are still civil servants: The status is actually quite nice. Same goes for Deutsche Post and Telekom, they also still have tons of civil servants they, as private companies, have to treat like the state treats other civil servants.
Oh, side tidbit: Civil servants don’t get days off. They get ordered to recuperate.
But aren’t most civil servants that work nowadays Fahrdienstleiter at DB Netz?
Article from 2018 says biggest groups are 4200 engine drivers, 3600 traffic controllers and 1700 station service. Of 38000 civil servants 26500 in active duty (i.e not in pension), including 3500 suspended and currently working for more wages as managers.
Numbers certainly changed in six years but I wouldn’t expect much drift in the ratios, it’s not like engine drivers are on average older than traffic controllers or such.
2007 the DB had 20000 engine drivers, 8000 of which were civil servants. So maybe 3000 left now?
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If workers in critical infrastructure would get so high wages through striking, why don’t the train drivers have that already?
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The railway system is also shit for that reason, it’s a chicken and egg problem
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To add to the absurdity of it, when the leaders of the Bahn announced first that the demand fo the traindrivers is inacceptable as their is no money available, they just had increased their salaries by millions.
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Well it doesn’t help argueing, that there would be no money for a wage increase. It was clearly hypocritical.
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Beamte can effectively strike, too. It’s called Dienst nach Vorschrift (duty by the letter).
They follow every regulation to the letter, which grinds everything to a halt, and there’s hardly anything anyone can do about it since they’re unfirable.
To counter that, the state just pays them well enough so they don’t need to strike.
To this day that company never healed from the Beamtentum and never will. Beamte are a horrible solution to anything and should only be a last resort, e.g. for the critical part of infrastructure as the railroad network. Not for the garbage companies operating on it.
Even then you do not need Beamte, you need proper laws regardless. Workers striking is mostly a good thing, even in “critical” infrastructure.
We need Beamte for judges and the like, but that’s it.
For example if most teachers were not Beamte, they could strike and maybe there would be some improvements.