WORLD WORLDWIDE GERMANY News Journal Update - (en) Germany, FAU, Directe Action: PIERBURG STRIKE - STILL CURRENT (ca, de, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

 On December 21, 2023, a punk evening on the Pierburg strike 50 years ago

took place in the Red Salon of the Berliner Volksbühne in the Forgotten
Industrial Struggles series. ---- "Summer 1973, Pierburg company, Neuss
am Rhein". This is how the film "Pierburg - their fight is our fight"
begins. He documents a labor dispute that made history 50 years ago.
Back then, over 2,000 women went on strike for equal pay for equal work.
The majority were migrant women. "The Pierburg struggle and other
struggles are the first steps in the fight for socialism," explained the
off-camera voice in the film, somewhat grandiosely. But what the film
showed was that the industrial action led to the workers'
self-empowerment. He shows how the women laugh and dance together, but
also stand up for their rights at demonstrations. "One mark more" was
the simple slogan that had great meaning for the employees.
Specifically, it was about one mark more wages per hour, but it was also
about women's refusal to continue to accept being paid less than men for
the same work. In the film, boards are shown that provide information
about the wages and salaries of the factory security guards who are
supposed to ensure peace and order in the company. We also see in
several scenes how the police take action against the striking women and
drag them into police cars. In one scene, the Neuss police chief
threatens the strikers with a pistol. Pierburg's boss defends the
repression because for him wildcat strikes are revolution. This position
is not surprising considering that he was already recognized as a
manager during the National Socialist era.

But state repression also leads to solidarity among colleagues from
other companies. Even the Nazi-trained management could no longer do
anything with their line of division. Pierburg's human resources manager
warns of "foreign troublemakers." The union representatives (men only)
of the DGB, however, reject the allegations and assure that the strikers
are acting in agreement with the unions. But it soon became clear what
little value these words had. A little later, the same union official
explained that the striking women should leave the factory and not
disrupt the amicable negotiations between the DGB and company
representatives. Here the rift becomes clear between a social
partnership union official who emphasizes right at the beginning of his
speech how united he is with the management and who stabs the militant
women in the back. But they didn't let that intimidate them and were
successful. Wage group 2, which provided for low wages for women, was
abolished at Pierburg. Hourly wages were increased by 65 pfennigs. A
large proportion of the workers who were locked out had to be rehired
and paid for four out of five strike days.
After the strike ended, the Pierburg management's campaign of revenge
against the workforce began. Part of the production was to be relocated
to another location, which would have led to layoffs among the combative
workforce. This also led to great outrage outside the company and
Pierburg had to abandon the plans. For this reason, active works
councils have been politically defamed and fired for years. Here too,
the Pierburg management had to admit defeat in the labor court. All
dismissal claims were rejected there. The works councils were able to
continue fighting with their colleagues. "It was not possible to
discipline the workforce," it says in the film. A DGB legal advisor
explained that the special feature of the procedure was that, for the
first time, works councils were to be punished for a spontaneous strike
in the company.
TRACES OF A NS COMMENTATOR IN GERMAN LABOR LAW
This also makes it clear why it is important to remember the Pierburg
strike 50 years later. The so-called wild strike, i.e. industrial action
that is not supported by a union capable of collective bargaining, is
still prohibited in Germany. This is what the employees of delivery
courier companies have had to experience in recent months and years, who
have been on strike against their poor working conditions since 2021.
They too were confronted with the legacy of Karl Heinz Nipperdey. The
former commentator on the Nazi National Labor Act produced a report
during a labor dispute in 1952 that still has a significant influence on
the right to strike in Germany today. This includes the ban on political
and non-association strikes, i.e. industrial disputes without union
participation. Now the riders, as the delivery service employees call
themselves, are also confronted with the legacy of a Nazi labor lawyer.
In their fight, they also look at the struggles at Pierburg, Heinze and
many other companies.

 From 2021 onwards, Duygu Kaya, who is part of the Gorillas Workers
Collective, played an important role in the labor dispute in the
delivery services. In an interview with the monthly newspaper analyse
und kritik, Kaya says: "It would have been crucial for us to have the
right to wildcat strikes. So we got to know the German right to strike
and studied the history of wildcat strikes, including when we resigned.
Of course, we also came across the strikes of 1973. That's when we
realized: It's no coincidence that we also went on wild strikes, history
repeats itself. That's why we started calling ourselves "Guest Workers
2.0." Here Duygu Kaya names another important similarity between the
Pierburg strike and the riders' labor disputes today. At Pierburg,
around 70 percent of employees were migrant workers. They also shaped
the industrial dispute. Different languages were also spoken there. This
becomes particularly clear in the film when the IG Metall negotiator
announces the results of the negotiations in the courtyard of the
Pierburg factory in Neuss. First, he names the most important points of
the agreement in German. The applause remained moderate. Because only
the German-speaking employees understood him and they were in the
minority at Pierburg. Then a colleague translated the results of the
negotiations into Spanish and there was huge applause. Now the majority
of the workforce understood. Very different languages could also be
heard at the riders' strikes: Spanish, English, Turkish and, very
rarely, German.

Here, as with Pierburg, it becomes clear that the working class in
Germany has always been cosmopolitan. The people came from different
countries, bringing their languages but also their strike cultures with
them. They were successful when they did not allow themselves to be
divided based on origin, gender and other identities and when they only
relied on themselves and their strength and not the union bureaucracy.
The employees of Pierburg had this experience 50 years ago and the
riders of Gorillas and other delivery services have had this experience
since 2021. Kaya summed it up in the ak interview: . "Today we are
forced into these precarious jobs because our residence and living
conditions are more precarious than those of our German colleagues. And
of course because we have no other legal means of fighting - like the
guest workers did back then." That's why it's very important that we
remember the struggles of 50 years ago today. We can build on this in
our struggles today.

I would like to end with two verses of the song "Bread and Roses", which
was sung by over 14,000 striking textile workers during a labor dispute
in Lawrence/USA in 1912 and which has since gone around the world in
many languages. It was heard again and again, where workers fight for
their rights, like the Pierburg strikers 50 years ago and the colleagues
of the Gorillas Workers Collective.

If we go together
our dead go with us,
her unheard cry for bread
also shouts through our song
they had for the beauty,
Love, art never exhausts peace
That's why we fight for bread
and want the roses with it.

If we go together
a better day will come with us,
the women who defend themselves
ward off the plague of all people,
is over, that little people
work for the big ones,
give me your whole life:

BREAD AND ROSES

   By: Peter Nowak

https://direkteaktion.org/pierburg-streik-noch-immer-aktuell/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca