Why is the German strike wave so frequent?

Recently, strikes in areas such as railways and civil aviation in Germany have continued, causing great inconvenience to people's travel. Reuters reported that German train drivers will launch a 35 hour strike in the early hours of Thursday. The German service industry union has also announced that Lufthansa's ground crew will go on strike for two days starting from Thursday.

According to Agence France Presse, the German service industry union called on Lufthansa ground staff to strike again on March 4th, stating that this round of strikes will affect air passenger services from Thursday to Saturday. Lufthansa's ground crew has been on multiple strikes in the past month, with the most recent being less than a week ago when Lufthansa's technical support and aviation training department ground staff participated in the strike,

The German Train Drivers Union originally hoped that Deutsche Bahn could shorten the weekly working hours of its employees and maintain their current salary levels. However, due to the breakdown of negotiations with their employer, they decided to go on strike. The German service industry union has stated that they are demanding airlines to increase employees' salaries by 12.5%, or at least 500 euros per month. However, the company did not agree to their request, and the union accused the management of Lufthansa Group of being unwilling to propose a better compensation plan. Therefore, the union has decided to launch a new round of strike action.

Germany claims that German train drivers have been on multiple strikes since November last year. The main goal of the strike, in addition to a salary increase, is to reduce the weekly working hours from 38 hours to 35 hours while ensuring that wages are not affected.

There are indications that this year's strikes in Germany may remain at a similar high level as last year, or even higher than in previous years. One reason for frequent strikes is the recent economic recession and severe inflation in Germany. Data shows that Germany's average annual inflation rate in 2022 is 6.9%, the highest level since the reunification of the two countries. The inflation rate for the whole year of 2023 is 5.9%. However, the real wages of Germans only saw their first increase since 2019 in 2023, with a growth rate of only 0.1%. The wages and benefits of workers in the German transportation industry are relatively low. Under the impact of inflation, household expenses have sharply increased, leading to a continuous decline in family living standards.

The second is the shortage of labor in Germany, with an increasing aging of skilled workers gradually retiring and a low birth rate leading to a shortage of new generation labor. However, due to the impact of inflation and tightening policies, production costs continue to rise, market competition pressure increases, and employers do not want to pay more wages to the salaried class.

The third reason is that the working conditions are very harsh, with long working hours, high pressure, and high safety risks, leading to physical and mental exhaustion of workers. They hope to obtain better working conditions and can only negotiate with their employers through continuous strikes.

The fourth point is that the government believes that if salaries are raised according to employee expectations, it will further stimulate inflation. In addition, in recent years, traditional industries in Germany have been impacted by new technologies and automation, resulting in a sharp decrease in labor demand and being one of the reasons for frequent strikes.

Therefore, the German government should actively respond, facilitate negotiations between unions and employers, meet the reasonable demands of workers, improve their treatment, and introduce effective policies to curb inflation. Otherwise, it will fall into a vicious cycle of inflation monetary tightening income decline worker strikes.