Conversations

A Conversation with a Colleague from BSH

The strike

On September 6, we started with work meetings and so we stopped production. On September 25 we blocked the Gate; this was the official start of the strike. It was not our plan to have a three week long work meeting, we though after three days we would have nothing to say anymore. The chairman of the works council talked almost 45 minutes to an hour every day, and two consultants of the works council talked 30-45 minutes daily. The works council had invited many people to talk: works councils from other plants, politicians, Hartz IV consultants and tax consultants

...who explained you in detail what stays left from your compensation money...

He wanted to talk about compensation money and taxes. We didn't care how to make an eight hour works meeting over weeks, we were ok with everything even tax consultants... But then he explained a lot of bullshit and scared people - it wasn't wrong, if you have 80.000, in any case 20.000 are gone!

Actually the strike should have started at the 18th, but when it finally started we had talked about everything three times. We had nothing to debate about in the first days of strike, so we watched movies, everyday strike movies.

But haven't you been watching movies at the works meetings, too?

Yes! Infineon strike, AEG strike, this Interconti strike, where they were striking over three years in Mexico... We also invited people from Charité (hospital in Berlin); they talked for about two, three hours.

Was there any effect? Did they show up when you were on strike?

We wanted to have a common works meeting with them and railroad workers in front of the Brandenburger Tor [historic monument]. The strike at Charité was canceled and the railroad workers disappeared. The people from Charité didn't come to visit during the strike. But it was good that they came to talk. It isn't easy to prepare people for a strike, who had never been on strike before. The more people came from outside the more brave the colleagues became: "We are not alone! We can make it!"

You didn't get much support, didn't you?

The most people from other plants were delegates. Not many workers showed up, only from CNH, four or five people came often. One works council from BMW was here almost all the time. But from Osram only two works councils visited two times! All in all we had expected more. We didn't get much support from other plants.

Why?

I guess, it's common sense: everybody dies alone. If BMW would have been on strike, maybe only five from our plants would have gone to visit. When the workers of CNH were on strike, not more than 10 people from our plant went. If there would be a strike today maybe 30-40 people of BSH would go and support them. But these are experiences, which developed during the fight, you need help and you should help others. Just like the ones from CNH who visited us, before I didn't even know that this factory existed, you've never seen them at mobilizations! Lots of people got a little political during the strike. They know now were they stand and where the capital is and something about the background stories. Some were really scared in the beginning: "Okay I want to be on strike, but the boss shouldn't see me." Later this constraint was gone, the second week, when the strike breakers came, these people were up front. Others were ashamed to distribute leaflets the first time in their life - and than it became just logical to distribute leaflets. That kind of practical stuff, that's clear now for people.

Who proposed ideas? Were all actions initiated by the strike administration?

Yes, it was organized by the strike administration, to block Nauen (little town outside of Berlin, another BSH factory) and so on. Sometimes things just happened. For example some colleagues went to Osram, they had coordinated that before. Two times leaflets were distributed at Nauen without asking the strike administration...

Did you get any contacts at Nauen factory after distributing leaflets and the blockage?

After they sacked 600 people in Nauen, now more than 50 per cent working through temp agencies at the plant, they don't give a shit. The rest of them are appointees or people with any kind of positions. No, we don't have contacts.

Your strike administration was accrued through coincidence, is that true?

In August, when 70 per cent of the people were on holiday, we needed to build up a strike administration to develop demands. The IG Metall (Industriegewerkschaft Metall - union) arranged a meeting of union members, only 38 people came. Out of this group 15 people were campaigning and got elected. This went according a quota: one Polish, two women, one appointee, one industrial worker and so on.

Was there any other group except the strike administration? For example a Polish or Vietnamese group?

No. Sometimes people had proposals. German skilled workers proposed to build up a music group, which should play at Kudamm (Downtown Berlin), to get attention for the strikers. But this didn't happen. Everybody participated but not on their own initiative. It's a kind of BSH tradition: if you call, they join it! It?s a little strange if you compare it with other factories.

Why did the people who talked at the works meeting shut up after the strike had started?

Maybe their goal was to strike - with the start of the strike their goal was reached, and everybody was happy. There were no ongoing political demands. The people felt just fine, they had enough food, and THE weather was good... you know, there was no atmosphere of really fighting. This happened at the end of the strike, that people stood up and spoke. Before the strike was just like a works meeting. Politicians came and got 'cheerled': "Colleagues, stay tame, maybe they can help us."

What else have you done besides a strike newspaper, website and a march of solidarity? And how many people participated at those actions?

Before the strike we had an auto convoy and a rally in front of the headquarters of Siemens. During the strike we did laundry at Kudamm and distributed leaflets in front of shops like Saturn, MediaMarkt, Karstadt (Big household appliance shops) and so on. At Siemensstadt (neighborhood in Berlin) we distributed leaflets in the morning to people on their way to work. And of course at the traffic light in front of the gates we distributed a lot of leaflets every day. We said: Who is going to participate? We need 30-40 people. And 30 - 40 people announced to do it. People didn't ask for actions! Sometimes there were only 10 people for an action.

Were those all ways the same people?

The ones who distributed leaflets were mostly skilled workers - electricians, locksmiths and assembly workers. We thought they wouldn't even participate in the strike. At the laundry day two works councils, assembly workers, two or three skilled workers and a few women were washing clothes. It was a different composition than distributing leaflets.

By the way, how many people were on strike?

Out of 1000, 470 got strike money. The first week was bad; a lot of people were looking for a chance to walk off! The strike itself, the picketing was a job for 150 people. Once 100 people had signed in, but only 20 were actually there. At another day we got back from an action and only 10 people were at the strikers' tent. Until then a lot of people didn't understand the political meaning of the strike. "I just want to sign in to get my money; I don't care about anything else." Then it was decided that people have to sign in and out with their group leader.

What was the positive surprise during the strike?

That a lot of people, you would not have thought that they would even participate, were very active in the strike! Never been at a demo, never distributed leaflets! It was important that the skilled workers were there. They had never before been at a demo or distributed leaflets. And the Polish, they have a clear workers consciousness, they may not be lefties, but they can easily keep the classes apart. Out of maybe 100 Polish, 80 were very active.

Where there also people on strike who were not union members?

Yes, a few. A lot of non-members took a sick leave, a very little group participated. The clerks were working or used all their vacation time. In Nauen, they had only work for 120 or 150 people.

How did it work with the strike newspaper? This was an idea of IG Metall, wasn't it?

Yes, it's a standard at strikes. But the IG Metall censored the paper from the beginning. Once someone answered the question, about how long we want to be on strike: "I already ordered a Christmas tree, don't worry." They had it in the paper, but they had to take it out again.

IG Metall distributed the money, the common stuff and the flags...?

Yes, the first day they had put up everything. Sergio (Luis Sergio - union secretary and official strike-leader) was there every day, the other came over for two or three times, solely to have speeches at the tent. At the strike meetings everybody was allowed to speak, the MLPD (Marxist Leninist Party of Germany) with the Monday demo, or who ever.

But there is a different impression if you put up all the IG Metall flags, wear the IG Metall t-shirts and draw all the sandwiches with "work, work, work!" or you take your own matters into your own hands. Those t-shirts were printed by the union, but then they wanted 10 Euros each. We took them all, sold them for 5 Euros and put the money into the strike cashier.

For a lot of people it was important that IG Metall announced the strike, because then you don't need to worry about your wage at the end of the month - the union was your boss. And a lot of people, actually the majority said: We're not gonna make it without them.

How was the effect concerning this question on the strikers? Did a few people realize that 500 people can manage something?

A few of the active colleagues say: They didn't want to, a lot was possible, but the IG Metall didn't want to.

The End

When did you realize that negotiations were going on?

Already on Friday! They didn't tell what they were doing, but they said something about signals for negotiations. Most likely they would have an agreement by Tuesday, but no one should know about it, because of a possible failure. A week before they had a supervisory board conference; Huber (Berthold Huber - vice chairman of IG Metall) is also a member there. I believe, at this time they agreed on the vertices of the agreement. It was very strange that the bosses were so late in asking for a legal application for passing the picket. They could have had this application in between three days, but they let it go for two weeks and until the third week they went to court to ask for the application.

And still you weren't prepared for the betrayal!

On Monday one of us said openly: "People, tomorrow there will be negotiations." The people asked right away: "What's about Munich?" And IG Metall and works councils promised: "No matter what kind of agreement we will have, we're going to Munich! If the workplaces are going to be saved, we go to thank them." Something like that bullshit. The next day, they canceled the trip. That was one of the main critics of the people: "You lied!"

The leaders of the strike had voted 9:6 to end the strike...

Yes. The chairman of the works council and his deputy are members. One fore worker and two German women who just wanted to work are too.

Especially people who are not threatened with lay-off and go with best interest of the existence of the plant, no matter under what conditions. They didn't care if 216 people have to go.

Were the strike breakers allowed to take a vote?

32 percent voted for "yes", there was no manipulation. With 3 percent of the strike breakers they got 35 percent. The Yes-voters took their vote on Friday. A lot of those who were active in the tent, voted for "yes" and were even more active in discussion afterwards not to get remarkable. Sometimes it wasn't possible to say openly, "Yes, I vote for the end of the strike." It's always that way. There is still a split in the plant between Yes-voters and No-voters. "With your "yes" vote you agreed on a lay off of 216 people."

What would have been a goal for the strike? What would have been possible to reach?

That there wouldn't be any lay-offs! That's what the people said from the beginning; And no worsening of the working conditions. At least five years of job security and capital investments. That's what everybody said: "If they don't invest capital, they again want to close down in two years." This is the reason for the overall estimation: "This time we're strong, this time we have to pull through everything."

After the strike

What is the situation in the plant?

30 to 40 percent are on sick leave.

According to the agreement, the arbitration committee needs to be done by December 15. Are they going to make it?

The pressure on the bosses and the IG Metall is pretty strong. They would have problems to push such bullshit through, if they don't make it now. Everything needs to be set by December 31.

The union was busy to bring down the strike for a whole week. At the end Olivier Höbel (chairman of the IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Sachsen) even threatened: "If you don't stop picketing, we will never support a strike when a staff is threatened with plant closing!" That was not a faked threat; an union has to guarantee to get workers back to work after a strike.

IG Metall realized that they would loose control, that's the reason for ending the strike. They had underestimated that the things would change during a strike. Two things were important: the big solidarity in Kamp-Lintfort (Siemens-BenQ factory, going to be closed soon) and that we didn't let people into the plant. That scared IG Metall. We said in the strikers tent: "We don't let anybody in!" One failing attempt to get in would have been 25000 Euros or something like that, but we answered: "We don't care, we don't let anybody in!" That threatened IG Metall. Since Monday morning 6 o'clock, we had closed the gate. But no one of the management showed up, we were surprised. Later I heard that it was already clear that they would have negotiations on Tuesday. IG Metall had obviously agreed with management that they wouldn't provoke the workers with opening the pickets.

Four days earlier the spontaneous fraternization in Kamp-Lintfort showed them that something could happen...

It wasn't like, that we wouldn't have been warned! Workers from AEG came over to us and said: "They're going screw you, watch out!" People from CNH said the same. But you don't fight with the IG Metall eye-to-eye, it was our first strike, but it was their hundredth betrayal, they know how to do it. If there would have been 20 experienced people behind us, who have been screwed by the IG Metall like the workers at AEG, then the story would have ended differently. We would probably not have been screwed a second time.

You don't get a second chance, that's the bullshit. The workers at AEG wouldn't have been screwed another time either...

But our problem was: If IG Metall would not have announced the strike, we could have worked our asses off - would have the people go on strike? No! We didn't make it. If we would have been stronger, we wouldn't have needed them. We were just able to go on strike, because they announced it

legally.

It's always difficult to fight closings. Normally the power is to go on strike...

We live in modern times: You don't win a strike in front of the factory gate! Publicity doesn't change anything either; auto convoys or demos to Roten Rathaus (town hall) didn't change much. They are afraid if you go to other factories, or even better when you get something done in the same firm. For example Siemens, firm wide, or together with BenQ, then both are threatened to loose control IG Metall and management. They can tell 500 people: "Piss off, the strike is over, go back to work!" But with 10000 it wouldn't be possible.

Now and then one could have the impression that the belief in the leaders was much more of a deterrent in this strike than the past years. This huge rage: "They betrayed us!" is the opposite side of the hope one had with these leaders.

At the beginning the belief in the works council and IG Metall was very big. This trust is gone now. For the IG Metall it was unexpectedly difficult to kill our strike, but they made it anyway. The control mechanism over the working class still works pretty GOOD; it doesn't matter if it comes from the local works council or from the unions. With words we couldn't break peoples trust in IG Metall. But the IG Metall does it with what they do, that is also means to politicize people.

All the bullshit happened before the strike

The union had demanded a social agreement, that's something you can have for a legal strike. But it's not possible to fight for job security under that demand, because you will cause the inevitable question about compensation payment.

During the negotiations before the strike, in June or August they offered the whole agreement as a present. Back then they claimed: "They will close the plant anyway, we have to offer everything, so we will be in a good light in publicity." And that's why they even offered the underwear. This whole bullshit happened before the strike even started!

The management knew beforehand what it would get, when they would get at the table: A 40 hours week, vacation and Christmas benefits... everything was offered already!

At the end of the strike you once said: the last days were so wonderful, they compensate for the whole drudgery. 20 years of slavery away and now I was allowed to be a part of it...

It was worth in the sense that the people didn't listen to anybody and decided their own things. It didn't matter if it was a works council or the chairman of the works council or IG Metall; they always fought them back and decided about the story themselves. The IG Metall said stop and the people opposed.

Do the people have now more confidence in them­selves?

Before the strike it was an illusion, now it is a normal thing. So in that sense: Yes! Before the strike maybe a lot of people would have accepted the result we have now, but during the strike they developed such a dynamic, a lot got active. Once I talked to two, three older workers, they told me: "If you would have told me two years ago, you were going to be outside the plant and block the gate, i would have laughed at you." See, what's possible in life! (laughs) One of them had never participated in a warning strike and now he is outside with us in front of the gate. The people see how good it is, if you get active together. For example the question of nationality didn't play any role. During work it is different; Kurds, Turks, Germans, Vietnamese or Poles sit in their separated corner to have lunch. If there wouldn't be lay-offs we easily could build something on that. We got to know new people; we know who has what abilities. It would be a very fruitful soil to plant on... Well, but those 500 people are not going to stay unemployed for the rest of their lives; they will start to work somewhere. That's an important thing: How do they develop their fight and keep talking about at other places?

How is it going on?

After every strike there are discussions about what could have been better; what can we learn for the future? The problem is that there is no exchange. For example, maybe it is going to hit Volkswagen, but the people from Volkswagen are not interested at the moment to listen to our experiences during the strike and how we got betrayed to prevent it in the future. We have to analyze the strike politically: What did we gain? What did we forget? I think the march on solidarity is a new form of fighting. How can we spread this out? It doesn't need to be a bus always, but I think about actions not in front of the gate only. What kind of fights can we use? How can we make it better? If we get to another place by bus, we should stay there and invite people for discussions. Then we can have political discussions and set up the next steps. Unlike: go over to AEG; clap your hands and good bye! And we have to do something downtown, it's important: in the morning a rally and afternoon a discussion round or something like that. Otherwise you don't get in contact with people! Then it gets stuck on the level of IG Metall or another... Secondly: we got to that form of activity spontaneously through the miners [Miners' strike in Turkey]. Maybe there are other ways to fight, we don't know about at the moment, which we can present in Germany.

"Suddenly everything fitted together"

You folks had the idea of a 'March of Solidarity' already earlier on...

Yes. We were inspired by the huge miners' march towards the capital in Turkey in 1991. But only shortly before the strike kicked off we started to form a commission.

The IG Metall paid for the buses, organised the accommodation...

Yes. Initially we actually wanted to walk. Always 30 people walking, for three days, then others take over. In order to get to Munich in four weeks, we would have had to march 30 to 40 kilometres daily on average. In the end that seemed too much to us. Why should we not pass through areas where there is not much happening anyway by using the bus? We presented this idea to the IG Metall and they said on the spot: "so we give you a bus". We only started to talk about the question of how we actually want to organise this action when the march had already started! The selection of people who joint the trip was also rather unfortunate. Some thought it would be funny to have a ride through Germany. Others thought that instead of standing on the picket you travel for free. May be 15 people were convinced of the thing they were doing, mainly the Polish, some of the Turkish, two or three German work-mates. To all the others the significance of the bus trip was actually unclear.

Why did you need the IG Metall for getting the bus?

The bus costs 1,800 Euros per day; we did not manage to raise this money. In addition to that the accommodation, one night plus breakfast for 40 people cost 700 Euros. For the logistical and financial support we needed the IG Metall. Furthermore we did not know how to establish contacts. If we had had our own contacts, for example to VW, we would have been able to decide ourselves where to go. After the march started everything was in the hands of the IG Metall, the contacts, too. They decided where to go.

There was a trust relation-ship, like, the IG Metall will organise the thing...?

No, not at all! The IG Metall organised it badly and everyone noticed. But for us the question was 'are we able to organise the factory occupation and the March of Solidarity at the same time?'

Once the bus was sorted you had the idea to pay a visit to Eisenhüttenstadt, Kamp-Lintfort and so on (towns where struggles against plant closures were going on at that time)...

Initially Kamp-Lintfort was not our destination. That was rather an idea of the IG Metall. We wanted to walk through some eastern German towns, our destination was Wolfsburg, where we wanted to pitch up for some days.

Why? Wolfsburg is not at all on the way...

But it is a huge plant!

You wanted to go anywhere where you could meet several thousand workers?

Yes, exactly, this was our aim! But then the IG Metall said that Wolfsburg is in process of finding a production location agreement, they do not want us; we might harm the negotiation process.

I think it is peculiar that Kamp-Lintfort was the idea of the IG Metall! I had thought that they would be afraid that two similar kinds of struggles would come together.

Exactly this is what happened: the whole town was up and about, they promised to come to Munich, as well. It was the climax of the march! And this is what scared the union and the employers. The IG Metall might have thought that once we drop in for a visit may be 20, 30 BenQ-guys would come along - we only got to know in Kamp-Lintfort that they have not worked since two weeks! So it was not the case that they left the plant anyway heading home after work, no, they arrived specially for the demonstration, a lot of them are commuters (so they had to make a journey and effort to come to the demo). If this action in Kamp-Lintfort had remained small scale, we might have gone to Munich. But they have seen a fraternisation taking place. Later on we got to know that 600 people would have come to Munich from Kamp-Lintfort alone: before that the EKO-Stahl people had said they would come, Miele wanted to come; people from Bosch wanted to join... suddenly everything fitted together.

Please tell us chronologically what happened. On Thursday, the 5th of October the bus first went to EKO in Eisenhüttenstadt, which went very well...

We were delighted by Eisenhüttenstadt. The visit at EKO was not the usual ceremony. The came out of the plant and immediately started talking to us: 'Don't let them tell you what to do and want not to do! We have decided ourselves, too. It is about your own arse, so you may well decide yourselves what to do, which action to take!' They occupied the highway and the Treuhand (institution for winding up companies), this is what they told us. They offered that they would take over our picket for the time when we head towards Munich. As an sign of solidarity they also wanted to send a bus to Munich.

After that you went to Leipzig?

The bus was just about to arrive in Leipzig when we got to know that there was a DGB-rally (main union head-organisation) against the reform of the health system, so we send three additional buses. The people from Leipzig looked at us and our leaflets strangely; we were not popular there. We were a lot of black-haired guys, we from Turkey, the Vietnamese. Then we gathered in the Nikolai Church, the priest talked to us. Then, the next Sunday in the Frauen Church was shit, as well. The priest called Führer talked to us. On Monday, the 9th of October we went to Bosch-Buderus in Zwickau. Hardly ten people came to meet us, amongst them three works council members and the town mayor. In the East only EKO-Stahl went fine, during this week the atmosphere in the bus was rather bad; a lot of people were so down that they wanted to get off the bus... On Tuesday, the 10th, the bus arrived at Miele, we had to walk for miles, through fields, although we wanted to go to

town centre! On the 11th in Nürnberg again several buses from Spandau joint us. That was much better; people came on their own accord in order to take a leaflet, which surprised me. We nearly walked an hour through town centre in order to get to the factory... cars stopped to take a leaflet, Nürnberg was completely different from how it usually goes. In front of AEG the situation was strange: you are on the road since a week, the work-mates stop work and come outside, the works council chairman talks for an hour, after him the union regional representative and then one of us. Then 'it was all nice, but now goodbye!' No contact established, no talking about what we want them to do or anything alike.

On the way to Kamp-Lintfort we discussed about our problems. We visited Duisburg spontaneously, distributing leaflets. That was quite good - and Kamp-Lintfort (Thursday, 12th of October) was very good. After that the bus was in Bad Neustadt. Only during the weekend in Stuttgart we started to paint or own placards, we wrote our own leaflet and formed a creative group. On the 17th in Dillingen...

Dillingen, as well, was a surprisingly positive experience, wasn't it? You would not have expected them stopping work for an hour and coming outside the factory, like they actually did.

Yes, they do not have this kind of tradition. On the same day in Giengen things did not go that well. Two years ago they signed a production location agreement there: the 36-hours week slashed, the annual extra-payment slashed, increasing piece-work load etc... The following year only 45 percent took part in the works council election. It was clear that not many people would come outside when the IG Metall calls for it, because they are rather cross with the IG Metall. But we were very happy about the fact that in Dillingen 300 to 400 people came to meet and discuss with us. In the night after that the IG Metall put three people from the bus into an aeroplane to Berlin, and these three guys tipped the balance during the strike committee's vote. The vote ended with 9:6 against the strike.

Later on Sergio claimed during a speech in the strike tent that the march did not have much of an effect, that everyone knew that the numbers have been polished up.

He had also claimed that less people than expected would come to Munich, maximum 1,000! He was right about that because his organisation, the IG Metall, had started to demobilise the action as early as one week before Munich was planned to happen!

Your initial idea was to give the employer a bad name in public. Then the dynamic changed completely: the bus travel started to bring together various groups of workers who faced the threat of factory closure. This was neither in the interest of the IG Metall, nor of the employers and the politicians. This is why the bus got ordered back.

...the travel was supposed to join these groups of workers who face closures and their mood: 'This has to stop. We fight back together'! In the end the bus travel contributed a lot to this shitty agreement. Without the bus travel the agreement might not have been reached at all. We threatened to pitch up in front of the Siemens head-quarter and camp there and travel from there to the DGB-demo in Stuttgart on the 21st of October. Siemens wanted to prevent this action in front of their Headquarter at any costs. Because the BenQ story was in their face at the same time. The hotter thing was our strike; they had to finish it off first. The IG Metall underestimated the dimension that suddenly group of workers joined directly. The board of the IG Metall was very concerned about that, they were able to see the political impact. It is never their aim that workers from different companies fight together.

The opposite is true; their aim is to keep them apart.

Exactly. And then they finance a bus under the slogan that we are supposed to fight together! (Laughs).

Nuran's story...

I started working at Bosch-Siemens 23 years ago, when I was 15 years old, officially 19 years.

Two and a half years ago a lot of people got dismissed. Amongst the dismissed were three of my female work-mates who had already worked in the company for twenty years or more. And of course, the work council signed the dismissals! People who were in the plant since eight, ten or twelve years where allowed to stay. The reason given for this decision was that the dismissed workers were not able to do the allocated job. That's bullshit! We have learnt that we are not stupid, that we are able to learn quickly. It is not a computer game, they are simple washing machines. The wage bracket was the problem, of course [due to seniority the dismissed people had been in a higher wage bracket]! When they dismantled our assembly line we applied for jobs in the laboratory. They told us, that there were any vacancies. Six months later they dismantled another line and suddenly there were jobs in the labs, for people who worked at Bosch Siemens for eight or ten years. At this point they kicked out four people who I knew very well, who had worked in the plant for twenty years or more. A man amongst them had no children, so he got fewer points, two women were single mums, and one was single, without kids. According to the social plan they have less points, although they had been in the plant for a long time. They now receive Hartz IV. A female work-mate told me that during the first visits to the job centre she always had to cry. They have threatened her in strange ways; they accused her of having left the job voluntarily. She told me: "It is really bad out there, you cannot imagine!" And this will be the case for the 216 [sacked] people, as well.

We hold one company assembly after the other; in September we crippled production holding a company assembly that lasted several weeks. Then we discussed: when do we finally start the strike? It took a long time, because for a long time the IG Metall did not want the strike. When the strike finally started, the employer had already had the time to get prepared. The works council always said: we will not be able to make it without the IG Metall. We need a union behind us. This is what they told us, the kindergarten. They wanted to be our educators.

I was at the picket every day. My son was ill at the time, but I prepared something for him and went to the strike every day, ten hours, twelve hours. I wanted to go to Munich, as well, my sister was supposed to look after him during that time.

I was outside a lot, leafleting in the trains, in the buses and so on. A lot of the drivers gave us permission. We stood two hours in front of Osram, I always tried to talk to people, they took a leaflet, but they were not interested. At that day at Osram the management had decided to lower the wage brackets, so people were in a bad mood. But although they had problems, too, and although I invited everyone to come to the strike tent, no one came - apart from some works council members.

On Tuesday we came back from the strike and we went shopping after 7pm, for the bus trip [to Munich], little drink bottles and the alike. Tuesday evening it was the first time that I said: slowly but surely I start to believe in Demirci, I said that for the first time! I think we might achieve something after all. And then, on Wednesday morning I have a look at my mobile, and there were two missed calls from my work-mate, who normally rarely calls me. I rang him back and he said: "Please, come here and tell the others, do you know, they sold us out. Demirci has signed". I just did not get it. I have never thought that I would cry, but I had really bad feelings when I was in the strike tent. We arrived there at half ten, everyone was there, everyone was shocked, many people in tears. The Wednesday was really bad, it was packed, everyone was told to come. Demirci had a completely weird face. Olivier Höbel from the IG Metall wearing tie, of course, Luis Sergio... was really bad! Then they wanted to hold another strike ballot, 25 per cent for them, 75 per cent for us. We did not make it, we got 67 per cent! Shame. I said right away that once we start the ballot, we have lost. Once we trust Luis and Oliver, we have lost.

We wanted to go to Munich; people were full off anger and hate. I was very noisy, too, I shouted "IG Metall out, IG Metall out!" But the main guy to blame was our works council chairman, because he has signed! After the ballot I was so angry, I lost it. I shouted "IG Metall out!" we did not want to continue with the IG Metall, we wanted to occupy the factory, organise the strike ourselves. We had done a lot of illegal things previously anyway. We occupied the gate; we did not let people enter, which was already illegal.

We fought well, but at a lot of points we did not act sensibly, we lacked the experience. We only went on token strikes before. I don't have a clue about some of the things, but I talked to a lot of people and I wrote to people in Turkey. Our colleagues from Turkey and the unionist from Poland both told us: everywhere people are forced to go on shrike without receiving strike pay. In March a unionist from Turkey came for a visit, he told about the strike of 800 workers, who walked out for eight months without a single Cent strike pay. I would give up one or two months of wages if it were necessary for the struggle! But there are a lot of people who talk radically, but without the pay from the union they would not do a thing.

Having to go back to work after the strike was very bad. It was on Wednesday when I went pass it. I did not look in the direction where the tent had been; it gave me a real pain, when I went pass it. During the first three days I did not meet the piece rate. Now I got my pay slip and they reduced it from my wage, but I just was not able to meet it! And I did not want to meet it. During the first day I worked together with a work-mate who did not meet it either. Then I heard from other work-mates, that they did not want to meet the rate, too. We talked a lot about it. I did about two thirds of the normal rate. Usually the foreman is very greedy for work, but during the first week he was really tired, he was in a terrible shape. And a lot of people were on sick leave, of course. One week, two weeks. Their soul was troubled. A lot of people over-exhausted themselves during the strike and became ill, some have been on the picket or running about for 24 hours.

I don't know yet if I will stay. I would stay one or two years, till my husband has his job situation settled. I counted on about 70 to 80,000 Euros leaving pay. My husband has a job now. In case I won't be working tomorrow, at least he would earn. But after 22 years I don't just want to leave like that. That will be terribly painful. I started working there when I was a child. And of course I suffered. I was a single mum for a long time, my husband was in Turkey. When my child was six months old I went back to work. That wasn't easy. I cried on the assembly line, I always had bad feelings about letting my baby alone. If I look at it now, I wouldn't do it again. But I had to work. That wasn't a nice life, tough times. I spend my youth in the plant. If I see my daughter now, who is still acting like a little girl... I did not have this chance.

I don't know what will be the outcome of the 15th of December. Then people will know who has been sacked. I don't know if I belong to those who have to leave. But it is not about me! This is what I always tried to explain to other people. Some people wear themselves out, because they are afraid of loosing their job. Of course, they are right, I am scared of loosing my work, too. But first of all it was the injustice of the agreement, we went into their trap, they have played with us. We have done what they asked us to do, although we told ourselves during the strike again and again: they fuck us over!

Of course I neither want to work under the conditions which they try to enforce now: 23 per cent wage cut, no annual extra-pay, which is another monthly wage, no holiday pay, working-times up to 42 hours per week. May be I won't stay till 2010 anyway. And who knows if the plant will still exist in 2010.

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