Ver.di public service strike

Well, they've done what they set out to do. Ver.di are marching down my street (Maxvorstadt area) as I type this, to protest "Lohnkürzung". So, now my awareness is raised, what are they on about?

They have stopped marching and have settled down in front of my building with their bull-horns and whistles.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/20...afx2588606.html

Allianz has been making cutbacks for years now and piling more work onto fewer employees and claiming that it is the market. One guy took a nose dive at the office building here and they came in the next day to tell everyone that it had nothing to do with the job.

Seems that many sectors of the labor market are being targetted. Everything from civil servants, teachers to professionals.

http://www.attenzione-foto.com/notweb/port...rike/index.html

Full support to Verdi strikers!

Photos from yesterday's demonstration.

I have to admit I support Verdi on this one too. I'm sick of companies treating their employees like shit. Admittedly, the ones who don't work should be kicked out, but I get pissed off when I read about companies like Deutsche Bank and Allianz who make a profit and then still get rid of employees and then Herr Ackermann walks off with 10 million for the year. Seems like a waste of time trying to save money when you pay salaries like that.

I do agree with some of the issues.

However, the moaning about having to work a 42 week is pathetic if you ask me. That's about 9 hours a day including a half hour for lunch. Hardly a big deal. Rare is the week that I work less than 45 hours and usually more.

Yes, but do you get paid per hour? I think 40 hours is fine and after that you should get a premium for overtime. German companies seem to have a problem with providing reimbursement for overtime. The best you can hope for is "time for time".

No overtime or time in lieu for me. If it requires working a 60 hour week then I will work a 60 hour week. It's not expected of me but at the end of the day if I feel that it needs to be done to get the job done then I'll do it.

Well, finally the big German companies are taking the 'American approach' - cutting back on people to save money. That was happening 15-20 years ago in the States. That's why there is no company loyalty anymore over there. That's why people don't stick around in their jobs for a lifetime like they still do here in Germany. I don't really have an opinion on whether or not this is good for the economy or not.

So, basically- and I apologise if this comes across agressively- you're willing to let your company walk all over you. Either that, or they're paying you a fuckload i.e. the overtime is included in your salary. I just remember the lawyers I used to work with who realised when they worked till 10 every evening, that their hourly wage was less the Putzfrau's.

They are hardly walking all over me as I explained earlier that the hours are in no way expected of me. At the end of the day I have always believed in getting the job done rather than staring at my watch and saying ok, that's my 8 hours done I'm off.

If I want to leave at say 2pm on a Wednesday my boss has no problem with it because she knows that I will not leave things in a mess and also knows that I often work late to get things done. It's a give and take situation.

The way I see it I am here to do a job and for my own sake (not the companies) I believe in doing it as well as I can. If it means putting in a few extra hours here and there so be it. If I was doing a job I hated then it would be different but I actually quite enjoy my job and to be fair they do pay pretty well.

Well, that you have a boss who letas you leave at 2 is quite commendable. My experience with German management has definitely been a "Vertrauen ist gut, aber Kontrolle ist besser". Mind you, that's been German management in American companies. In one of the old German companies, I had an excellent boss who trusted you to do your job beyond what he expected of you. I found thrived in that atmosphere and wasn't too bothered about the salary because I was happy at work whereas in the latter I constantly griped about salary since there needed to be some sort of compensation for spending 8 hours in a very unfriendly environment i.e. one where it's noted how late you arrive, but not how late you go home and not by how much work you've done. So, I agree with you. I think people should be paid for what they achieve irrespective of how long it takes them to do it although if someone constantly needs 16 hours to do something and they get an 8 hour salary, then something is very definitely wrong and needs to be addressed.

I work at the Landesbank, where we have Tarifarbeiter (Back Office) and aussertariflicher Arbeiter. Working on the trading floor I know that although the salaries are fine by Munich standards a lot of guys (and girls) here could leave tomorrow, go to London and triple up at the very least. People don't because of the social aspect of the employment laws in Germany and the advantage of being in Munich. These social advantages have been trimmed back severely in the past 5 years, without the pay levels really increasing. That is where I see the injustice. I will work my nuts off and be happy about it, so long as I am getting paid for it.
Verdi's demands sometimes come across as belonging to a world we left in the 70's, but when i see headline's today like Deutsche Bank's Ackermann (CEO) receiving an 18% pay increase to take home €11.9MIO then it is probably only right and proper the unions are there to look after the little man.

triple your living expenses too probably. I'm not sure there is much point to comparing a world financial centre like London to little Munich though when talking banks etc

No sympathy for Verdi and the rest of the 42 hour week bunch..
I think the doctors have a serious case and they deserve a result
Whoever's been treated in casualty at 4:30am by a zombie in a white coat, shaking with fatigue so much that he can hardly give an injection can see the need for a "fair days work for a fair days pay"

Trouble is they're all thrown together..the wasters and those with a real cause...

You've fallen for the classic case of divide and rule Nighthawk.
Doctors deserve a fair days pay for a fair days work but other public sector workers are just "wasters".

The employers want to try and cut a deal with the doctors that will play to public sympathies and then knife the other public sector workers who are much larger in numbers.

Ok, so, more than a month ago now, I went to the Staatsoper. Because of "The Strike", the singers were all dressed in normal concert attire, sitting on banks (chairs for the soloists), with no acting/costume/props etc.

Now, because of "The Strike", the people who should be fixing my internet (the Studentenwerk - all that needs doing is to replace a switch), won't do it.

So can anyone explain to me who is striking, and what they are/aren't doing? Clearly, the Studentenwerk are still taking my rent, handing out keys to new students (quite a few people moving in/out last weekend), taking back keys from old ones etc. And the opera singers were, well, singing. So what's the deal? Are they on strike or are they not? And when will it ever end!?

You mean this: Ver.di public service strike ?

@ Noirin: Maybe profundo could clear things up here, but as far as the opera goes, it's possible that the musicians were not on strike, but the backstage workers were. With no props people, stage manager, lighting technicians, costume people, dressers, scenery technicians, etc., the singers and orchestra would not be able to do much more than what you saw. The backstage support for a professional opera requires a lot of coordination and manpower.

The musicians may have even been making a point in support of their fellow workers backstage. I'm sure the opera would have seemed a lot less entertaining without the support from the wings, thereby highlighting the contribution the technical staff make to a production.

It will end when it ends.

I haven't looked into it for a week or so but the latest I heard is that Verdi has offered to go to neutral arbitration but the employers have refused.

The employers, the politicians and their media lackeys are divided amongst themselves in their goals and tactics.

How can you complain about a 42 hour work week when you get 30 days holiday?

There is no way that German companies can stay competitive. Employees here have it a lot better and cost companies a lot more than in most places.

What about improving pay and conditions for all workers everywhere instead of driving them down here in the search for greater profits?

UA: I'd seen that, but I've no idea who/what Verdi is (unless we're talking the dead bloke with the music), so I wasn't sure if it was the same strike, or what the story was.

cinzia: I absolutely understand how much work is required to put on an opera - actually, it suited me ok that night, because we were waaaay up in the Gods, and couldn't really see anything anyway

MonksTown: Any tips on a rundown of the situation auf Englisch? I've found a bit on the BBC, but they only talked about doctors striking. I still don't understand who's striking, or why.

How would you propose implementing something like that?

Unlrelated to strikes here, but...I think 40 hour weeks are rubbish. Thats why. I got my hours cut (with an appropriate cut in pay, naturally) at a place I was working, and it was like getting blood from a stone for the boss to agree. I know its pretty much the same everywhere on that score, but in Germany, work seems very much more about filling in timesheets than anybody actually trying to get shit done.
I think the whole work/life balance is utterly screwed everywhere really, and I think societies picture that one works 40 hours a week is just stupid. Not allowing peeps to work 80 hours is nuts in my mind - should that person want to do it - but finding a "part-time" job for 20 hours a week or so (outside of the realms of working in Aldi) is nigh on impossible, and thats equally stupid. I'm sure there are plenty of umemployed peeps who would quite fancy some of that.

International solidarity and ultimately revolution innit!

Public sector workers are involved in strike action in the UK and France at the minute too.

Noirin, will try and summarise briefly later.

On topic - a view from jet2.com

http://www.jet2.com/News.aspx?id=65

Exactly. Fantasyland. Point is, if companies didn't worry about profits, they could forget about the capital markets and without the capital markets business is severely restricted. Further, Germany has ridiculous rules about hiring and firing which means companies don't hire because they can't get rid of people. The opposite side of that is that employees are relectuant to quit jobs they hate for fear of finding another one. In the "evil empire" USA, employees can indeed be fired on short notice but they can also quit on short notice and go somewhere else if their employer treats them like crap. Not every employer is out to suck the life-blood out of its employees. That's a myth.

Edit: Oops. Didn't realize there was a 2nd page of comments.
This is re: the opera house strike.

You bet cinzia. It's the stage workers' union. They were told (without the typical 5 year warning) that they would have to not only work several hours more a week, but that they would have to give up their 13th month of pay*. Plus they haven't had a raise in years except for the random adjustment for inflation. Today is day 51 of their strike and the all the other opera house workers support them. It is against the government and not the theater company, but not only do the audiences suffer as a result, but the theater has to hire scabs to cover the work. Per day these other workers now cost the opera house/government more than the original workers did.

Sir Peter, the Staatsintendant voices his support constantly for their cause. There are announcements before every show and often the workers are there making announcements as well, pleading for the people to understand and therefore put pressure on the government if possible.

Singers, orchestra players, dancers and many other peripheral stage people are either on fixed contract or on a guest contract so they aren't part of this union- and the show goes on, albeit on a half scenic stage or a concert version of an opera- if at all. But now with more and more shows being cancelled left and right, the strike is threatening the rest of the season. The next domino to fall may very well be the Fest Spiel in July.

Granted this is a much wider strike of public workers across the country, but the only angle I have any info on is on this particular strike at the theater.

(*So say you make 1,500 a month take home = 19,500/year. Instantly adjust that to 18k and add a bunch of hours and you wouldn't be happy either. As they strike now, the Union is paying them their strike wages, which is close to their normal pay I believe.)

Performance Cancellations at the Bavarian State Opera as a Consequence of the Ongoing Ver.di Strike

The theater understands but is not behind the strike 100% because of the effect it has on the audience.

Some numbers from a flyer handout of the opera house strike.

Going from 38.5 hours a week to 42 hours with 220 work days a year = 154 more work hours a year = 21 work days = one month more work. Plus they are being forced to give up their extra bonus (explained in previous post as the 13th month- don't ask me, germans do fuzzy math.) So in the end they will work an extra month and get paid for one month less = 2 months unpaid work each year.

One guy put up his montly time sheet and he currently (before the strike) takes home (after taxes) 1,317 EUR a month anyway, which is pennies compared to the same job in the US.

-p

sorry, just gotta rant:

many companies have been cutting back employees because - now this is an intersting point - have way to many. In the Fat Years of the german economy where all could do no wrong, companies like dresdner bank employeed and employeed and employeed. Everyone worked 60 hours post war, subsequent generations resting on the effors of the previous. A company i know well has a news department: 6 people which read all the newspapers every morning for 4 hours and compile a press report. every day. for what it costs to employ one of these people, one can suscribe to a news service...

Is it the moral obligation of a company to hang on the ineffencency because that's the way it used to be done?

Do YOU have the same moral obligation not to diet out of sympathy all those starving fat cells?

A little more hire and fire would not only be good for industry here, it would be good for US. Surveys have shown that workers in the usa have much less fear of being unemployeed than the germans - despite or because of the worker's protection laws here?

Sure, it can be an uncomfortable and ugly process. And people suffer for the shortsightedness of Management decisions long past. But that's life.

Time to wake up and smell the red bull, Germany, it's get fit or die the slow death of globalisation.

And when i calculate all those uncompensated overtime hours into my flat salary and feel a good round of self pity coming on i try to remind myself: if you don't like your job, quit and go work somewhere else.

Further, I detest other people assuming that they know better what's good for me. Lots of people are comfortable to deligate authority over their lives to some institution or another. We are told when and where to cross the street, what to believe and how to act. Welcome to the free world. (at least the Old World doesn't dictate sex practices)

Aren't wages and hours to be worked at least a matter which can be left over to The Market? Are we not free to decide to bugger off at least to another company, if not another industry, country... Globalisation isn't just the free movement of goods but also of labor. As all of us have realised, or we wouldn't be here.

It's my opinion that Verdi and co. should go sleep with the dinosaurs – they are equally suited to the modern (economic) environment – and leave us with the responsibility for our own lives.

So there

ag

well said ag. I like the part about the fat cells.

Problem is that you are tyring to convince Germans to think for themselves and that is hard. Some of them grew up thinking that they would do a certain job and that it would be their job forever. I know many who started thinking about their career at 15 and set out to do precisely what it is they are still doing now at 50. For chrissakes the Tenglemann cashiers' turnover rate is about 100 times longer than US convenience store workers. (6 months / 50 years). Who ever thought as a kid that they would be a cashier for their whole lives? Quitting/starting over is not a big percentage of the system here. Otherwise, a good argument.

The strike is winding down at the opera house. Only a couple more cancellations (IE: Tosca, this evening) and a couple more concert versions of shows (IE: Tosca this Saturday and Parsifal on the 9th.)

From their website:

Not meaning to be a moron (and I am delighted to hear the strike should stop affecting the Opera soon - I'm really looking forward to bringing my sister when she visits), but does this mean that the strike is over now?

Will it stop wrecking other things too? Or have the opera just sorted out their act, and everything else that was affected is still TBD?

Thanks!
Noirin

No the strike is continuing, its a rolling strike so other services are slikely to be effected if not any more the theatres.

Talking to an activist in Verdi last week. Sadly their spinelss frigging SPD led Bundesvorstand has refused to ballot its transport workers.

Yeah. German workers are so expensive that they push the price of German exports up so that they are higher than any other country in the world. For example (2005 estimated export values):
DE $1.016 trillion (population 80 million)
US $927.5 billion (population 290 million).

Damned expensive and uncompetitive, those Germans.

Indeed... Germans are nervous about being unemployed because, well, it's never been an issue for the past few generations.

The argument about 'uncompetetive, labour restricted, Europe' doesn't always hold true - you can use aircraft building (Airbus No. 1, Boeing No. 2), or car building (Mercedes, Porsche, BMW, Audi, VW, Renault, even Peugeot etc. doing OK. GM, Ford & the rest of the US car industry having horrible trouble, Britain - er, forget it) as convenient examples. This flies in the face of everything you hear about the euro and labour market restrictions being bad for business.

Whenever my wonderful (US based) employer feels the need to shed jobs it's always the US that bears the brunt, then the UK, and perhaps one or two from Munich. Why is this? Partly because the US has the most staff but... Well, you know what I'm thinking.

It's not just the US where you can apply this argument - Britain has no significant domestic manufacturing industry but has attracted some foreign companies because of the lax labour laws. There's various platitudes in the press about Britain being a 'service economy' but then they go into panic when they realise there are 1.2 billion Indians and a good number of them can also do 'services'. Up go the barriers, out comes the verging-on-racist protectionist propaganda. Still, the UK economy is going OK and unemployment (as measured by heavily fiddled figures) is low. But study the British press in detail - and remember they all hate Europe. When they attack the government they say 'but you fiddled the figures' yet when they get on to the subject of Europe they're happy to use these fiddled figures to prove the UK is a better place than Europe.

In the end it comes down to the people who make the decisions, and generalisations are as bad as people are different. Still, the European employee rights laws are generally good, they need some moderation, and we have to be realistic, but in the end it doesn't really matter - we should all be focusing on our chances of getting a pension and so not having to forage for food when we're retired. I feel this means not buring out by age 40 coz I've still got to work another generation.

The interesting thing that a number of companies are starting to realise they can use the fact that they haven't sent their services overseas as a marketing trick. I'm still not sure though, when I call my bank, whether it is any easier to understand the the thick northern Irish accent* that answers than it would be an Indian in Mumbai. Still, at least I am a little happier that my data is being treated under UK laws, as weak as they may be, than I would be if the service were outsourced to Mongolia.

* Meaning thick accent, not "t'ick Oirish"

In poking my nose around and trying to dig up a story for the strike at the opera house, I have found out that the strike is continuing. Although they aren't outside with the banners it is not completely over. There is only a hiatus from the demonstrations while BalletWeek happens.

I will keep you informed as I find out more.

My husband works for the StatsOper, however he works in the factory out in Poing. So if you think that the singers are just sitting around on chairs and singing on the stage guess again, there are over 2,500 employees that work for the opera. Painters working on the set designs, carpenters who make the furniture for each set, welders, sculptures, costume and drapery makers and that is just in Poing. Then they have to transport all this to the Operas, haul and move and so on. And yes they haven`t had a pay increase in well over 7 years. They want to cut their extra month salary, increase their hours to 42 per week, and take on a lower medical insurance policy, whereby this company might pay for some things and then again not. Leaving it up to the employee to fit the bill. And I want to point out that MOST OPERAS cost somewhere in the vicinity of 350,000 each to produce. Each set needs brand new furniture, brand new paintings, brand new sculptures and so on. And they also store each Opera set for sometimes years before they bring it out again. Now we involve the cost of storing as well. So think again what it is costing the public to have 2,500 people not have enough work to keep them going for even say a full month. And Berlin`s Opera house was losing money rapidly but it is in the same sphere as the bavarian one, so the bavarian one had to reinforce that Opera House with substatial increase in money. With 350,000 euros per Opera in each location, look at where your money is going.

I think what you've missed here is the cost-benefit analysis. By that I mean that the German workforce is known for the quality of its work. It's very difficult to cost quality. Suffice to say, I think the holiday is good because it should mean you're more productive when you get back. It all derives from the ethos of working to live as opposed to living to work. As has already been mentioned by OhFFS, German companies are the most productive in the world at the moment. Don't let negativist media let you think otherwise. Most of the exports derive from mid-sized firms who aren't the focus of the media. Big companies like VW, Deutsche, Allianz and Siemens make the news, but medium-sized firms have and still account for 60% of the German economy. And the reasons for the rationalisation in those companies has less to do with labour laws than with bad management, senior management gunning for short-term focussed share bonuses and the threat of hedge funds.


I think, if Herr Ackermann took a slight cut in his salary of say, a few million, that would go a lot further towards making a company more profitable than cutting a whole lot of jobs.


Right in the USA. Wrong here. Only the companies listed on the DAX have to worry about the capital markets. Unfortunately, there's such a thing as a hedge fund which comes along with shit loads of loan capital, buys a company and then uses the profits of the company to finance the interest charges of that very loan capital. They often break up the company into little bits and sell it off often leaving a shell of what the company used to be. There has been the odd success story, but the problem with them is that they are usually have short-term objectives which are often bad long-term. Still, this does not account for the huge number of medium-sized firms who have special relationships with the banks here and who are not exposed to losing control via take-over bids since their shares are not readily tradeable if at all.


Mate, I detest your arguments in a big way. You have a serious case of "Ich AG". That's the problem with society today. We are all think about ourselves. We're all bloody selfish cunts. Don't you think it's a tad unfair comparing people to fat cells? These people aren't all bloody unproductive. How is hire and fire going to improve the economy? I suppose the next thing you'll want is moving in and out of buildings when you feel like it. You have fixed costs in business and you have to live with them. Salaries are by and large fixed costs. So when management fucks up the workers must pay the price. That's life. So you just going to let people walk all over you for the rest of your life because that's what it's all about. You're going nowhere and fast! So you are free to bugger off to another country? Do you think people with families and commitments here are so free? Stop thinking about yourself. You hate people telling you how to live your life yet you're very quick to tell Germans how to live theirs! Try and see things from another point of view other than your own.

In summary, I support the unions since the balance seems to have shifted too much in favour of the companies. I would like to see these big cats get a little less salary before they axe employees. Show a little solidarity towards the employees who contributed to them achieving their bonuses in the first place. I would also like to see the German media be a bit more positive about the German economy because it ain't all that bad. The malaise is more due to lack of domestic demand which I wouldn't be surprised to find out is due to the negative domestic media. Other causes are obviously the enormous cost of reunification, the cost of joining the Euro despite unfavourable interest rates - main economic reason why Britain has not joined yet- and the fact that Germany is the largest net payer to the EU, in fact, they subsidise the very tax cuts that eastern European countries are using to attract German companies. The German government is then doubly taxed by having to pay the unemployment benefits of those who have lost their jobs.

Globalisation in action

Not that I'm a big fan of unions, but:

4,000 jobs go as Peugeot to close 'inefficient' plant


And I bet most of them voted Labour.

It's right here too. How do you think the hedge fund buys a company in the first place? If a company is privately held, they're not likely to sell to a hedge fund. When a hedge fund buys a company and loads them up with debt then the debt does have to be serviced of course. But how does the hedge fund make any money out of it if all the profits are servicing the debt? Right, they reorganize and restructure the company to make it more profitable OR they sell it off in parts because the parts were worth more than the whole anyway. I see hedge funds as performing a necessary function in "cleaning up" poorly managed companies. They don't go after well-run efficient companies because there's no money in it. As I mentioned in the beginning, the family businesses and privately held companies don't have anything to worry about in the first place. Don't buy into the whole "locust" story.

The only good argument, i've heard against hedge funds and equity markets was the one from the CEO of Porsche who made the point that hedge funds/equity markets ignore the long-term strategy of a company and rather focus on the short-term. It's exactly this reason that Porsche is NOT a public company though...problem solved. Further, it could be argued that if the company management convinces the shareholders that their long-term strategy is a good one, then those shareholders would be less inclined to sell which would in turn also solve the problem.

why thany you for that uplifting and mind-opening commentary.



I feel you have misunderstood my point. I am not letting people walk on me because I am not bitching and moaning, i'm doing what i need to do, whatever the circumstances. Death and taxes and unemployment are Facts Of Life. Ugly, but a side of the coin. We have to cope. That's life - my life - each of our lives, and I, personally, am makling the most of it. Oh, sorry, does that qualify me as an egoist? a monster? I'm not expecting someone else to provide me with a job for life, wether my contribution is useful or not. Nasty me.
I don't fear change - and believe me, i've had lots of it.
Maybe that's why.


Shall I let you think about me instead? Will either of us be better off then? The motor of social development has always been strong individuals following their convictions. not lemmings running behind the flag of 5% more wages and a 36.247 hour work week. (and not a minute more)

I, too, have a family and committments here. I would find it very difficult to leave. But i would commute to Frankfurt or ship everyone off to the stix in Kentuckey instead of expecting the General Good to pay my rent because i'm busy being obstinate or inflexible.


I can, and i do, as much as i can, which has lead me to an opinion backed by a philosophy of responsibility and independance.

oh, there's me going off again...

ag

[quote]Hedging
Hedging is an investment strategy designed to minimize or elim-
inate investment risk caused by possible future adverse changes
in market values. Such a strategy involves use of the futures
markets and usually has a cost associated with it. In other words,
while properly hedging an investment portfolio will reduce po-
tential future losses, it will also limit potential future gains. The
investment tools that can be used today as hedges consist of:
selling short; call and put options; futures contracts; and other
unique derivative instruments. [quote]

Ergo: hedge funds invest in securities and attempt to profit from dropping or volitile market situations.

They are not the Heuschrecken investors which buy and, in popular opinion, dismantle every company they can get their hands on.

but hedge fund does sound so sexily dangerous, doesn't it?

ag

So. Just came back from Odeonsplatz where they are having quite a festival. A nice stage with thousands of euros worth of technical equipment. Live bands, beer stands, wurst stands and everybody having a jolly good time indeed.

Oh, it was another offical Verdi demonstration apparently. For people who feel threatened and upset they were certainly having way to good a time for my liking

Today was a big day of protest agaist Eddie Stoiber but the union bosses here tend to prefer to channel their members into stunts and festies rather than storming the Staatskanzlei. On the radio that Verdi are thinking of asking for solidarity strikes!

And spend a fortune doing it...