By Manuel Kellner
GERMANY — On October 24, members of the German metalworkers' union (IG Metall) participated in the most spectacular nationwide mobilisations since June 15 when 350,000 people responded to a call by the trade-union federation DGB to protest the Bonn government's austerity policies.
IG Metall leaders had threatened to "carry the conflict into the plants" if the results of negotiations with the capitalists' confederations around the payment of 100% of wages during sick leave were unacceptable. The October 24 "day of action" was called after the negotiations failed.
Four hundred thousand metal and steel industry workers ignored the lamentations of employers who, for the nth time, complained of "illegal strikes", to demonstrate their anger and determination during working time. The employers' arguments, that the protest would damage Germany as a site of production and endanger employment, had no credibility after their own violation of legal collective agreements with the union.
In Sindelfingen (near Stuttgart), a banner just beneath the speakers' platform at the rally read: "It's high time for class struggle!" While only a minority of workers identify at the moment with such slogans, there is clearly real potential for important mobilisations, not just in defence of 100% sick pay, but also against the government's policy of austerity. Everywhere, trade-union spokespeople linked the conflict with the employers to the general tendency of the government to dismantle the welfare state.
Demands for inclusion in the 1997 collective agreements between unions and employers are now being debated. It is possible that the strike movement will recur in this framework.
However, the trade union leadership is seeking a compromise: a 2% wage increase in 1997 for a "guarantee of employment". The employers' confederations answer that they cannot force their members to employ people, or to dispense with dismissals. The employers are demanding the dismantling of social welfare.
IG Metall is defending its workers' demand for 100% sick pay, but its commissions and leadership may be prepared to concede that overtime payments not be included. On this basis, it is possible that the leadership may demobilise this particular campaign.
But even partial movements against an increasingly hard-line attitude among capitalists who want to undermine the whole system of collective bargaining and reduce labour costs in Germany, may yet lead to major confrontations.
In mid-November, a congress of the DGB (of which IG Metall is a member) will be held. A revised version of the DGB's Program of Principles which eliminates any reference to a possible alternative to capitalism is being proposed for adoption at the congress. In response, a quite heterogeneous trade-union opposition has been formed demanding that the vote on the draft be postponed.
Also on the congress agenda is the coordination of different sectors in struggle against the employers' and government's austerity offensive in this country.