Major Victory for German Workers

In Baden-Wurtemberg, a southern region of Germany, the IG Metall Union won a huge victory for the German working class: the right to temporarily shorten your work week to 28 hours to care for family, with lost pay being partially covered by the company. And as a cherry on top, they won a 4.3% wage increase for all employees! IG Metall is the largest union in Europe, with 2.3 million members. Germany has recently had a growing economy, but workers hadn’t seen anything to show for it, still working the same hours for the same wages (not too different from here in New Orleans). Under constant stress trying to balance work and family life with wages that won’t budge, the workers decided to take control into their own hands. They started with mass walkouts on the job, which they escalated to 24-hour strikes, until their employers (industrial giants like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Siemens) caved into their demands for more pay and flexible hours.