Majority of Germans are in favor of restricting the right to strike News

A majority of Germans are in favor of restricting the right to strike in the area of critical infrastructure, such as railways, air traffic or energy and water supply. This is the result of a representative survey by Insa, which the market research institute carried out on behalf of the economic wing of the CDU and which WELT is available in advance.

According to this, a total of 59 percent of those surveyed at the beginning of March, regardless of their political preference, voted that strikes in the areas mentioned should only be carried out after a previous arbitration procedure and at least four days' prior notice - or should be prohibited throughout.

Above all, those interviewed who said they wanted to vote for the Union parties or the Greens in the next federal elections support restrictions on the right to strike. According to this survey, 53 percent of Greens supporters think it is right to make arbitration and the said advance notice a condition for legal labor disputes. For those close to the Union, it is 45 percent.

Almost a third of the supporters of the CDU and CSU (30 percent) are even in favor of a complete ban on work stoppages in the area of critical infrastructure; for potential Green Party voters, the figure is 13 percent. Those surveyed who are close to the AfD and the left are particularly in favor of the right to strike: 33 and 30 percent, respectively, reject any restriction on industrial action. Overall, almost a quarter of all survey participants want to leave the right to strike untouched.

After the strikes at German airports in February, the SME and Economic Union (MIT) of the CDU initiated a debate about conditions for labor disputes in rail, air and shipping traffic, as well as for rescue services and energy and water supply. Work stoppages should therefore be made significantly more difficult in these areas in order to guarantee the country's basic supplies, according to MIT Federal Chairwoman Gitta Connemann.

The nationwide massive strikes on buses and trains, with which the trade union Ver.di and the DBB-Beamtenbund and Tarifunion, together with the climate activists from Fridays for Future, had temporarily paralyzed local public transport in several federal states in the past few days, has the discussion about the right to strike fired.

“Nobody wants to ban strikes – in any area. But when it comes to energy supply, rescue services, trains or airports, strikes must be the last resort," says MIT boss Connemann. “The survey clearly shows that people in this country do not want to be held jointly responsible. In the case of critical infrastructure, where thousands upon thousands of bystanders are affected without warning, more fairness must be ensured. Critical infrastructure needs better protection against arbitrary work suspensions.”

But contrary to what the survey suggests, the CDU's demands are met with rejection from the Greens in the Bundestag. “We Greens are particularly fond of the railways. Many of us are affected when the trains don't run. But we live in a country where the extent of strikes is limited," says Matthias Gastel, member of the Bundestag and transport expert for the Greens parliamentary group. "Restrictions on the right to strike are not necessary."

Unsurprisingly, the MIT boss also received a clear rejection from union representatives. "Now those in the CDU are demanding a curtailment of the right to strike in the public transport sector, who campaigned for the privatization of Deutsche Bahn in the early 1990s and thus put an end to civil servant careers in rail transport," says the chairman of the train drivers' union GDL, Claus Weselsky. “Here one mistake follows the next. But we will not allow a fundamental right like the right to strike to be restricted by a couple of business representatives from the CDU who have gone berserk.”

However, the SME and economic union is not alone in its push. After the February strikes at German airports, the Confederation of German Employers' Associations also called for legal regulations for labor disputes - and thus caused outrage among union bosses such as DGB chairman Yasmin Fahimi and Ver.di boss Frank Werneke. They see such advances as an attack on a right protected by the Basic Law.

The right to industrial law strikes, i.e. for collective agreements, results from the Basic Law; however, a right to strike is not explicitly stipulated there. In addition, the principle of proportionality applies to industrial action. In the past, courts had repeatedly ruled out strikes, including those by the train drivers' union, as inadmissible.

In Germany, an average of 9.1 working days per 1,000 employees were lost in 2021 due to strikes. This means that there were significantly more strikes in the year before last than in the previous year. More recent figures are currently not available. So far, Germany has been far below the average for industrialized countries in terms of strike days.

In MIT's push, the devil is in the detail. Because first of all, it would have to be defined which areas belong to the critical infrastructure and which divisions there exactly. In the case of rail transport, for example, the question arises as to whether only the area of the rail network is included or also all the railway companies that organize and carry out the transport there.

It is already the case that negotiations must be held before a strike can take place – otherwise the courts will generally prohibit industrial action. However, arbitration procedures are not required by law. And it is questionable whether collective bargaining autonomy can be softened enough to make it mandatory.

Employers and trade unions currently agree on arbitration procedures on a voluntary basis by contract. The GDL, for example, currently has collective agreements with 61 railway companies. But the union only has an arbitration agreement with one, the Südwestdeutsche Landesverkehrs-GmbH – but not with Deutsche Bahn.

Insa's survey was conducted on March 2nd and 3rd. 1003 adult citizens were surveyed. According to the institute, the error tolerance is 3.1 percentage points.

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