Unions: Study: Almost a million strike days in Germany

The employees in Germany went on a little less last year than in 2023. The new industrial and social science institute (WSI) of the Hans-Böckler Foundation, close to the union, has a total of 286 industrial action. That is 26 less than a year earlier.

The study states that many industrial strensions were carried out for a high wave of inflation for higher wages. Working conditions were often the focus. Most of the time it was warning strikes. Unlimited compensation strikes with a preceding preconent vote in Germany have been the exception for a long time, according to the WSI.

WSI study: 946,000 working days failed

According to the study, around 912,000 people took part in strikes last year, which was 55,000 more than in the previous year. “However, the number of working days with 946,000 due to the labor -related work was significantly below the previous year’s value of around 1.5 million,” the authors write. The reason is that the strikes in 2024 were significantly shorter than 2023 on average. “Above all, wide warning strikes in the metal and electrical industry led to work-lay down with many participating but manageable duration.” There were also many participants in VW and in local transport.

Most of the industrial action did not exist in the context of area collective bargaining, but at home, company or group level. According to WSI, the reason is that many companies have withdrawn from area collective agreements in recent years. The unions then tried to conclude house collective agreements.

Internationally, Germany is still in midfield

“In international comparison, Germany is still a country with a relatively few strike days,” emphasized the researchers. Germany is still in midfield in international strike statistics. Between 2014 and 2023, around 21 working days per 1,000 employees per year due to industrial action. In the Netherlands, too, the cut was 21 days, in the USA at 20.

According to the evaluation, Kanada has the highest industrial volume, where there were an average of 108 failures per year per year in the examined period. This is followed by Belgium (107 days), France (102 days only in the private sector), Finland (93 days) and Cyprus (72 days).

Not every strike ends successfully for the unions

From the unions’ perspective, the strikes did not always end successfully. For example, the fight for a collective agreement at the scrap and recycling company SRW Metalfloat in spring 2024 had to be unsuccessfully ended after 180 days of strike and a subsequent lockout. The clashes among online retailers Amazon or Zalando have also been committed to it for years. “Even here, work has not made any breakthrough,” the study authors state.

According to WSI, employers are more often trying to ward off strikes through negotiations, but by calling courts. “For this purpose, companies often hire specialized major law firms, which binds resources on the unions and the use of the linen strikes in some cases,” it said. Because the German right of strike that has not been spelled out in many ways is there a risk that a strike will be declared inadmissible and that employers demanded great compensation.

Institute of German economy sees “high willingness to conflict”

The employer -related institute of the German Economy (IW) found a “high willingness to conflict” in an analysis for 2024 in February. The reason for this are the IW researchers in high wage claims of the unions in an economic environment characterized by stagnation. The highest intensity of conflict was in retail and wholesale and foreign trade. Third place followed the tariff round between the German Bahn and Gdl. The airlines were also very conflicting.

Conflict -rich tariff groups faced a number of “peaceful” rounds, according to the IW. So the negotiations in the chemical industry could have been cooperative again. Negotiations in paper production and in the Bavarian hotel and restaurant industry were also comparatively peaceful.