Johannes
Some background from the FAZ. They just launched an English language website today: www.faz.com
Union War Chest
F.A.Z. FRANKFURT. Germany's public sector unions ÖTV and DAG are prepared to strike for more than 2 weeks in their unresolved pay dispute with employers, senior union officials told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Sunday. While Interior Minister Otto Schily, of the Social Democratic Party, warned that larger pay increases could not be financed, public sector union heads threatened to boycott the Alliance for Jobs between the government, unions and employers.
Public sector unions are due to vote on Monday on whether to initiate strike action, but few ÖTV and DAG members doubt that the respective majority votes of 75 percent and 70 percent can be achieved to approve industrial action. "I think we are strong enough to still gain something from this," ÖTV's head of the Bochum district, Hartmut Limbeck, told this newspaper. "Our coffers are filled. We managed to stage the 1992 strike pretty well," he added.
Union members in eastern Germany were firmly in favor of strike action, according to ÖTV's head in Berlin, Susanne Stumpenhusen. "The organization wants to get back a feeling of itself and of its power," she said. Employees were prepared for the risk of a failed strike, but "whoever does not fight has already lost," she said. Ms. Stumpenhusen did not believe the position of ÖTV Chairman Herbert Mai was jeopardized after he recommended that members accept the arbitration ruling. June 4th