Chronology

Chronology of the Strike

6th to 22nd of September

The production is stopped by "extraordinary company assemblies".

15th of September

The company tries to take away the machines, but workers prevent it.

19th of September

Strike ballot, 95 per cent vote for strike action.

1st day of strike, 25th of September

At 3 am workers block the factory gates, first strike assembly at 12:30 pm.

2nd day of strike, 26th of September

The chairman of the general works council of the Bosch-Siemens corporation from Munich visits the strike tent. Arno Hager turns up, as well.

3rd day of strike, 27th of September

The strike newspaper is distributed in front of the factory on Bernauer Street. At 11 am the apprentices of a nearby construction technology school visit the strike tent together with their teacher. At 12:30 a delegation of three workers from Siemens-Messgeräte (PTB) arrives. During the strike assembly people read out solidarity messages from the Siemens general works council and from unionists working at the company AEG.

4th day of strike, 28th of September

During the morning school classes visit the strike tent. Klaus Ernst, rep of the WASG (Party for Social Justice), makes a speech. He draws parallels to the long march of workers employed in the ball bearing industry of Schweinfurt who organised a protest march to Bonn during the 90s. He promises to help organising the march to Munich (BSH head-quarter) and to establish contacts with union bodies in Bavaria. The second speaker of the day, Oliver Höbel, criticises the general lack of workers participation in companies.

5th day of strike, 29th of September

The management tries to refuse the members of the works council admittance to the company premises. A group of 20 to 25 strikers return from a spontaneous trip to the BSH plant in Nauen. Several school classes and their teachers come for a visit. The climax of the day is the appearance of Gregor Gysi (leading figure of the Left Party, Party for Democratic Socialism) at 11 am. The former Berlin mayor Momper arrives without announcement.

7th day of strike, 1st of October

A calm Sunday, the striking workers and their families and supporters have a common meal, the chat and debate...

8th day of strike, 2nd of October

During the morning various media reps arrive: Welt, Berliner Morgenpost, ZDF, WDR and Spiegel TV. Petra Pau from the Left Party arrives, Klaus Lederer (ditto) presents a solidarity petition signed by participants of the last party assembly plus a donation of 400 Euros. The notorious Monday Demonstration (in the tradition of the anti-Hartz IV protests, see prol-position news no. 1/2005) arrives at the strike tent; only few people took part, hardly any workers. The debate in the tent is dominated by the MLPD.

10th day of strike, 4th of October

Today there are no guests apart from Spiegel TV and the unionists from BMW. The official strike leader Luis Sergio and Güngör Demirci are nearly the only people who attend the strike assembly. During the afternoon a washing day takes place at the Breitscheid Square. Dirty washing is washed by hand, symbolising the future of Berlin without the BSH. The turnout for this action could have been better, but despite the rain the workers attracted a lot of attention.

11th day of strike, 5th of October

The march of solidarity starts at 9 am, delegations from BMW, Daimler, Otis and Siemens take part. Amongst others the DGB-boss Michael Sommer, Oliver Höbel, mayor Wowereit and the town senator for economics Harald Wolf (Left Party) make speeches. The demonstration lasts till 12 am and brings the whole of Spandau to standstill. After the demo people embark onto eight buses while being greeted and seeing off by Gregor Gysi. First destination is the plant in Nauen. The village policeman is confused and despaired: "But the IG Metall guaranteed that all lorries would be able to enter and leave unrestricted!" Answer: "This might be true, but we don't agree. We are here in order to block the gate". About determined 250 people manage to block the plant effectively.

According to the first impressions while watching workers arrive and leave after shift most of the staff in Nauen are between 17 and 30 years old, most of them from East Germany, amongst them a lot of temp workers. There are hardly any signs of solidarity; one guy gives a 20 Euros note for the solidarity fund. The workers from Spandau form a long row on both sides of the exit road and enjoy letting the workers from Nauen drive pass it. All people who are too cool, too grumpy or with too short of a haircut have to drive through a particularly long and narrow pen. The unionists and works council of the plant in Nauen do not seem to be interested in the action. A sole works council shows solidarity with the struggle. Only later on and half-heartedly the works council picks up the demands of the strikers.

12th day of strike, 6th of October

During rainy weather most of the workers sit together in the strike tent. Six works council and the shop steward leader of the former Ford plant arrive. At 12:30 pm the strike assembly starts. Luis Sergio and the official strike leader ship: "The action yesterday was a complete success. Right on the first day we managed to get into the main television news. Our colleagues in Eisenhüttenstadt did a very good action today. Now a new stage of the struggle begins. We have to use all forces. Therefore we should travel to Leipzig tomorrow, because the famous priest of the Nikolai church, Christian Führer, announced his willingness to address the strikers at 2pm".

13th day of strike, 7th of October

About 200 strikers travel to Leipzig. They gather on the yard in front of the station and march towards the Nikolai church, distributing leaflets on the way. In the Nikolai church a panel discussion about welfare cuts and the reform of the health system takes place.

14th day of strike, 8th of October

Relaxing, chatting and reflecting.

15th day of strike, 9th of October

Since the start of the solidarity march the attitude of the media is surprisingly positive: Spiegel TV (RTL) broadcasted an objective report on Sunday evening, mentioning as the main reason for the dispute the profit seeking policy of the company. The local RBB wants to broadcast a documentary on the indefinite strike on Monday prime time.

16th day of strike, 10th of October

The march of solidarity reaches the washing machine plant of Miele in Bielefeld. The strike activists report that the IG Metall has completely retreated from the march, that wherever they arrive they would not get any support, contacts etc. from the union.

17th day of strike, 11th of October

A delegation of the Siemens Dynamo plant pops by for a visit. Solidarity messages from the IG Metall Nürnberg, the GEW (union for education) and the IG Metall Rosenheim arrive. Arthur Fischer, main representative of the IG Metall in Rosenheim wrote a letter to Jürgen Peters (union boss) and Berthold Huber asking them to develop a common strategy for the strike at BSH. He suggests that all employees of all BSH plants in Germany should take part in the demonstration on the 19th of October.

18th day of strike, 12th of October

Short messages from the strike buses on their way to Nürnberg, all seems fine.

19th day of strike, 13th of October

Apart from the picket there are only a handful of people on the strike premises, six buses left for a visit at BenQ (former Siemens mobile plant) in Kamp-Lintfort (over 500 kilometres from Berlin). Around noon a delegation from the nearby Osram plant arrives together with the shop steward-leader, they have a long chat with the official strike-reps. At 4pm the work-mates send a message from Kamp-Lintfort. The mood rises.

20th day of strike, 14th of October

The atmosphere on the strike premises is livelier than ever. Unionists from Osram and Icom (formerly Herlitz) arrive in the early morning hours in order to get an up-date on the situation. Afterwards Güngör Demirci informs about the current stage of the legal process at the labour court: the court did not pass a sentence, but in respect to the wish of the management of BSH a settlement was decided on: the strikers have to leave a three meters wide alley for people and trucks to be able to enter and exit the plant. After the decision Oliver Höbel says: "Great respect for this motivated staff. This exceeds all expectations. You should not stop before the counter-party pays tribute to you, as well". A team of the state TV-channel ZDF arrives.

Panel discussion with unionists from Poland, Turkey and Spain (Hasan Aslan from DISK, Todeos Felizinski from Solidarnosc and the translator Gesine Traub on behalf of the Spanish unionists).

Hasan Aslan: Since 1997 BSH produces home appliances in Turkey, about 3.5 Million products each year. In 2005 BSH increased profits by 55 per cent, to a total 55 million Euros. The workers get 2.13 Euros per hour; this amounts to 680 Euros before tax per month. This is only for the permanent staff, which account for only a third of the total work force. Most of the workers are temps; they only receive the minimum wage of 284 Euros before tax per month.

Todeos Felinzinski, member of the regional committee in Lodz, conveys a solidarity message from the BSH workers in Lodz. He says that he was not able to contact any official representatives. He describes the desolate condition of his union, which lost about 90 per cent of its members during the last ten years. The workers cannot count on the support of the unions. The wages range between 300 and 400 Euros, all contracts are timely limited. In Poland the unemployment rate is about 15 per cent, meaning that 3.5 million people are without jobs. The unemployment rate dropped by five per cent compared to the previous year, which is not due to more employment, but due to people leaving Poland, mainly to Great Britain and Ireland.

21st day of strike, 15th of October

Family Day, common meal and drinks. The Offene Kanal (Open Channel, an independent media collective) films and interviews people.

22nd day of strike, 16th of October

There is no alley for the trucks! As early as 6:30 am a huge mass of people, amongst others workers from Osram, BMW and Siemens Messtechnik gathers in front of the factory gates. The SPD has announced to organise a rally from 6 am to 6 pm, in order to support the workers. The speeches are as daft as ever: Lucy Redler from the WASG calls people to participate in the DGB-demonstration on the 21st of October. But for the first time all people get involved, a different, more combative atmosphere spreads. Neither bosses nor scabs show up. According to unofficial declarations the bosses will not try to enter the factory neither today nor tomorrow. Luis Sergio guesses that at the moment the compromising faction within the Siemens Company board dominates the hard-liners. Initiated by the employer there will be an attempt to reach an agreement in front of the regional labour court tomorrow at 8am. Many people have objections against it. The work-mates from BMW organise their works council meeting inside the strike tent. Another big bulk of solidarity greetings arrive, amongst others from Switzerland and Austria. The work-mates working at Miele announce that they will send two buses full of people to the protest in Munich.

23rd day of strike, 17th of October

A delegation that has been at the labour court arrives at the strike tent. The lawyer Thomas Berger summarises the proceedings on behalf of the strike leader-ship: he has the impression that BSH wants to keep the plant in Berlin open. BSH does not want to appear as the job terminator of the nation, they do not want to provoke a situation similar to the one after the closure of AEG in Nürnberg. Luis Sergio announces that the strike leader-ship will have to elaborate a concept for the partial continuation of the production by the 22nd of November. This would be a rest time for the strikers which they can use in order to get prepared properly. He supposes that there won't be any results concerning closure or dismissals before Christmas. Güngör Demirci begins to speak "News of success are coming in from all sides. BSH workers in Dillingen walked out today. The willingness of the employers to enter negotiations can be seen as a positive signal. We will join the negotiations and repeat the known demands". On Friday, the 20th of October there will be a strike party, all strikers, their families and friends will have a common meal, listen to music, watch a documentary about the strike.

24th day of strike, 18th of October

In the early morning hours the compromise between BSH and the IG Metall, which has been agreed on during the night, is presented to the workers: out of the 616 currently employed people 370 are supposed to stay under considerably worse conditions; 30 people are supposed to be employed in the mother company in Berlin; 216 will be dismissed. There won't be any additional dismissals till 31st of October 2010. The IG Metall signs that they will abstain from organising any protest actions outside from Berlin. The official end of the strike is dated 20th of October 2006, midnight. While Höbel announces these results the strikers spontaneously throw their strike vests and stickers onto the stage. During the whole day very controversial debates take place. The strikers feel betrayed by the negotiation delegation and strike leaders. The atmosphere got tense when Luis Sergio claims that the numbers of demonstrators mentioned in the strike newspaper has been altered in favour of the strikers.

During the afternoon a helpless anger prevails, some dream about revenge or hope to continue the struggle, others try to talk themselves into a state where the official result seems better than it is. It is rather overwhelming to see the impression of defeat even in the eyes of those workers who will vote against the acceptance of the agreement tomorrow. Even the angry workers are clueless about what to do in case the ballot will be in their favour, which is highly unlikely.

Later on I understand that there is often a unionist (a guy from the negotiation delegation or a works council or another official rep) standing in the middle of the discussing groups, answering the questions and complains. A kind of human lightning conductor, who consoles and calms down. Amongst them the works council chairman and another colleague from CNH, who sit together with strikers and make jokes: "I will de dismissed, as well, but I am contented with our result. We could not have achieved more. The people were worn out by being on strike. Some started building their own house recently, they could not afford to be on strike...". Yeah, right, but they can afford wage cuts and unemployment!

25th day of strike, 19th of October

The strikers disagree with the result and express their anger during intense discussions on the strike assembly. Surprisingly many people take the mic and get applause for it. They are particularly angry about the joint action of strike leader-ship and IG Metall renouncing the planned protest rally in front of the BSH head quarter in Munich. A worker takes over the mic and criticises the fact that the result is even worse than the last offer made by BSH, he demands that the workers should not accept this sell out, but continue the strike. He claims that neither BSH nor union has handed out the written agreement to the workers yet, so there cannot be a secret ballot about it amongst the workers. He received standing ovations from 95 per cent of the people. Sergio answers that the ballot would have to be secret, but that he would postpone it and explain the agreement to everyone in a following assembly. After this announcement the atmosphere is less agitated. A female worker accuses the works council Demirci of betrayal, he told everyone that he would not share a table with manager Maier, but now they both signed the agreement. Demirci feels more and more trapped and is pushed into a corner. The situation escalates again after a worker calls him a scab and demands that he is therefore excluded from the ballot. The works council looses his mind and screams that he started fighting monopoly capital aged 18 and that no one could accuse him of breaking the strike.

There is a break.

After the break they discuss each point of the agreement. When point 9 ("no protest rallies outside of Berlin") is read out the situation finally gets out of hand: all workers in the tent get off their seats and shout "Work for all - Solidarity!" The panel looses control, Höbel and Hager search refuge behind the last row of seats. Several standing ovations and speeches, people chant, "We want to fight", and on the stage people fix a banner "Say No" which receives a long applause. There is a Solidarnosc-flag, as well. The whole increasing tension seems strangely torn, developing in stages.

The workers demand an open, instead of a secret ballot. The union insist on their statute, but finally a unionist says that the reaction is an obvious vote against the cancellation of the strike. A speaker, who took part in the march, asks at the end of his speech: "Who is in favour of the continuation of the strike"? Many people (not all) raise their hands; there are no votes against the strike. Later on Güngör Demirci proclaims during one of about a dozen personal statements that the works council has the right to topple the agreement by revoking the settlement that has been declared in front of the labour court. He says that for him 50 per cent plus X is a majority and that of course he is on the side of the workers. At the end of the assembly he stands on the stage, his fist in the air, while the unionists look around in distress. Nearly all people in the assembly accept Demircis announcement and greet it with applause. The tent trembles. Then the ballot starts.

26th day of strike, 20th of October

The ballot box closes at 12 noon. The public counting begins. At about 1:15 pm Sergio announces the ballot result. When he addresses the workers as "dear colleagues" they start to shout: "We are not the dear colleagues of strike breakers!" He does not repeat the address, instead he announces that people on sick leaf, people on holiday and strike breakers are not allowed to take part in the ballot, but that according to the statute their vote will automatically be counted in favour of the negotiated agreement. People get agitated, there are catcalls. According to the strike leader-ship 539 people were allowed to vote, 513 people voted, which are 95.8 per cent. Out of which 167 vote in favour of the agreement (32.5 per cent) and 344 vote against it (67.5 per cent). Two votes are invalid. According to the German union regulation 75 per cent of the total staff has to vote in favour of strike action in order to get union support. The BSH workers would not be able to continue the strike legally.

After the announcement of the result Olivier Höbel wants to say something. Someone tells him to piss off. "I will stay", he answers. "Then we will piss off". If anything left a little chance for the future struggle than it was this action of the workers leaving the assembly in protest. My impression was that people are really angry, but that it is difficult to find alternative ideas. The idea "to piss off" illustrates the problem. Höbel's answer triggered the reaction of the workers. Would Höbel's answer had been different; their reaction would have been, as well. The tent grows empty, the IG Metall officials, the strike leader-ship stays alone with the media people. People shout while leaving: "We will continue the strike! Solidarity"! Shortly after the action a cop car turns up, someone must have called them, probably the union. Outside the tent people debate about how things could continue. Later on the works council's chairman joins the crowd and announces that he will do everything in order to make the continuation of the strike possible. Despite the result he wants to try to convince the union local and IG Metall committee to continue the strike for political reasons (although in Germany political strikes are illegal, as well - note of the translator). He wants to convey the three main demands of the workers: no dismissals, higher leaving pay, better conditions for early retirement. By acclamation the gathered crowd votes unanimously in favour of the suggestions. The vote for a new strike-leadership is announced, but the vote does not happen.

Another break again!

It remains completely unclear how things are going to be continued from here. The fact that, after all what happened, Luis Sergio (and to certain extend Güngör Demirci, who at least made verbal revocation after each written betrayal) can still stand and talk on the stage says more than words. So does the fact that there is a break after each decision that somehow should trigger the desire for practical steps or at least further clarifications. The spokesperson of the IG Metall Bernd Kruppa stresses that according to the union statute the agreement has been accepted. The BSH workers do not want to agree on that, a works council member declares: if the IG Metall refuses to support us, we will continue the struggle on our own. In the evening the news arrive that the highest committee of the IG Metall refuses to acknowledge the demands of the strikers. Anger and hopelessness increase, many people demand the continuation of the dispute without the IG Metall.

All of a sudden Wowereit (mayor of Berlin), Gysi (head of the Left Party) and Harald Wolf (senator for economics of Berlin regional government) turn up in order to talk to the strikers and calm them down. Neither them nor the songs of Dieter Dehm are able to appease the workers; he has to leave the stage in order to avoid physical damage.

21st of October

The BSH workers participate as a group on the DGB (union umbrella organisation) demonstration, they carry a banner: "We want to keep on fighting! Where is the IG Metall?" They are not allowed to speak on the stage.

24th of October

BSH opens a new assembly line for washing machines in the plant in Nauen.

25th of October

Workers in Spandau, Berlin go back to work after two official holidays.

[prol-position news #8 | 4/2007]