Tag Archives: Unions

Berliners won’t even notice

February 2, 2026 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Public transport is always at a standstill here.

Tens of Thousands of Transport Workers Walk off Job in Germany – Commuters across Germany faced ‌freezing ​temperatures and empty platforms on ‌Monday as tens of thousands of public transport workers ​walked off the job in a strike called by trade union Verdi, shutting down ‍bus and tram services in ​most cities.

Verdi, which represents nearly 100,000 transport workers, called the strike after ​talks with ⁠municipal and state employers over working conditions stalled last week.

We must destroy the economy in order to save the economy

December 10, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , Leave a comment

It’s the economic science, stupid.

German union boss urges Berlin to scrap borrowing cap to safeguard economy – IG Metall chair Christiane Benner addresses thousands of VW workers striking over planned closure of several plants.

The head of Germany’s most powerful trade union has called on Berlin to drop its cap on new borrowing to safeguard the future of Europe’s largest economy.

IG Metall chair Christiane Benner said the country should follow the example of the US and China, which are heavily supporting their domestic industries, meaning the borrowing limit had to “stop — immediately, not after the elections”.

German of the day: Bahnstreik

January 10, 2024 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means railway strike.

Pro tip: When you’re the guy giving the order to strike, make sure you catch the last train back to your headquarters in Berlin before the strike begins.

More German of the day: Dumm gelaufen. That means shit happens.

Train drivers’ strike – GDL boss Weselsky misses last train to Berlin.

Claus Weselsky has a problem: due to the train drivers’ strike, the head of the train drivers’ union (GDL) said he missed the last train to Berlin on Tuesday evening.

Courts in Frankfurt rejected the injunction issued by Deutsche Bahn against the strike action on Tuesday evening but after that, things went less well for the union leader, as the hearing lasted longer than initially expected.

Germany’s Education System Sucks Almost As Much As US-Amerika’s

April 6, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

But we’re still number one! USA! USA!

85 percent of Germans dissatisfied with the education system, survey reveals – A staggering 85 percent of people are dissatisfied with schools and educational policy in Germany, according to a recent representative survey by the Forsa Institute. 85 percent of survey respondents said that they believed the German education system did not sufficiently equip children and young adults for leaving school.

Pupils’ delayed learning caused by school closures during the coronavirus pandemic was among the biggest concerns for respondents. Recent data from Destatis revealed that the number of children repeating an academic year increased by 67 percent between 2021 to 2022; the academic year 2021 / 22 saw 155.800 pupils retake a year. The survey results also come as Germany reckons with a debilitating teacher shortage, with between 32.000 and 40.000 posts unfilled.

Not A Single German Train Will Be Late Today

March 27, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Because none of them will be running.

You know. Glass half full and all that?

Strike over pay paralyzes rail, air travel in Germany – Trains, planes and public transit systems stood still across much of Germany on Monday as labor unions called a major one-day strike over salaries in an effort to win inflation-busting raises for their members.

The 24-hour walkout — one of the biggest in decades — also affected cargo transport by rail and ship, as workers at the country’s ports and waterways joined the strike.

Industrious Germans?

December 6, 2022 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Yeah, I read about those once. Looks like it’s been quite a while since then, though.

Tesla’s Berlin Hub Can’t Hire Enough People, or Keep Them – The company’s staffing problems have been magnified in Germany, where it is unable to meet targets as more workers head for the exit.

“Some people are off sick longer than they’ve actually worked. There are people who I haven’t seen working for three weeks in six months. Many people are signed off sick because the motivation isn’t there.”

Wouldn’t A 3-Day Work Week Save Even More Jobs?

August 17, 2020 By in Habitudes, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Personally, I think it’s time to start talking about the 2-day work week. But that’s just me. I’m a visionary or something.

Work

Germany’s biggest union calls for 4-day week to save thousands of jobs – Germany’s automotive and industrial sectors were already undergoing huge structural changes before the pandemic struck. The IG Metall union thinks a shorter working week could now help prevent mass layoffs.

In the upcoming union talks, Hoffman said IG Metall would call for a wage increase for workers, despite the recession.

Forget Mediation

May 21, 2015 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

What these guys need is some meditation. Or maybe some heavy medication.

Strikes

Don’t worry. These GDL train drivers will be back for strike number ten before too long. And not that anybody cares anymore or anything, but the post office employees and kindergarden cop-people are still on strike here, too.

Remember when Germany used to be a “first world” country?

The latest strike is the ninth walkout in just 11 months and follows a five-day train strike earlier in May, which was the longest in Deutsche Bahn’s 21-year history.

Do They Strike This Much In Greece?

May 5, 2015 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

European travelers have contended for weeks with the possibility that Greece’s dwindling finances might lead to empty ATMs. They should have concerned themselves instead with Germany.

ATM

While cash machines in Athens are still operating without any trouble, striking couriers in Berlin this week stopped filling ATMs, leading to a crunch for those trying to make withdrawals. And the open-ended labor dispute with a local security company means there’s no end in sight.

Berlin’s strike is the latest in a series of walkouts that have riled a nation more accustomed to mocking the labor strife which has so often beset neighboring France. A strike by train drivers that began Tuesday is paralyzing travel and clogging highways throughout Germany. That action follows a March walkout by pilots at Deutsche Lufthansa AG that led to flight cancellations for 220,000 people.