Thoughts on Germany’s Week of Protest
“No farmers, no food”. This was the refrain of German farmers who last week launched a nationwide protest against the government’s plans to phase out diesel subsidies for the agricultural industry. Starting last Monday (8th January), farmers held rallies and brought city centers and major roads to a standstill as part of a week-long nationwide protest. The protests are likely to spread beyond the agricultural sector with truck drivers stating that they will “join the farmers’ protests to express their dismay over a toll hike for heavy goods vehicles” introduced by the government last month.
Concurrently, German train drivers are back on strike after the breakdown of talks with the state railway company Deutsche Bahn, a move that follows on from a year in which “Rail travel in Germany was plagued by strikes”. Indeed, 2024 could be a year in which industrial conflict becomes rife across Germany. Workers in retail, the construction industry, air travel, and a host of other industries are all due to begin wage negotiations this year. In the context of a cost of living crisis and an economy in recession these talks could very easily break down. As the Guardian reports, there seems to be “a dramatic change of mood in a country long feted for its consensus-seeking approach to industrial relations, especially compared with its more traditionally strike-prone neighbour France”.
