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For A Comprehensive Right To Strike
For A Comprehensive Right To Strike
Several former workers of the delivery service Gorillas were fired because of their participation in a wildcat strike in 2021. (We reported)
Three of them sued against their dismissal, pointing to the right to strike as a fundamental human right guaranteed by the Constitution and the European Social Charter. However, at their first trial in April 2022, the dismissals were upheld. The court followed the view that strikes that take place without a union calling for them are illegal and therefore do not protect against dismissal. The former Gorillas workers challenged this ruling and appealed.
On April 25, 2023, the appeal hearing took place, with a rally and a few dozen supporters and activists from the Campaign for a Comprehensive Right to Strike and a Last Generation activist.
One of the Gorillas workers, as well as colleagues and supporters explained in moving speeches why an extension of the right to strike in Germany is necessary. Duygu Kaya, former Gorillas worker:
Without the right to strike without unions, our work is nothing more than modern slavery legalized by law.
Since this struggle is of great importance for the entire working class in Germany, we are documenting the rally with several video contributions.
Precarious workers are on the one hand forced to defend themselves against illegal practices of their companies, and on the other hand, due to their special conditions, they often have no other possibility to defend themselves than to strike in a self-organized way and without unions, Duygu Kaya explained in her speech:
The transitions in these workplaces, the temporary contracts, the frequent turnover, the dependencies such as residence, visa, etc. do not make it possible for long term unionizing.
A Lieferando worker organized in the FAU talks about how undemocratic it is not to be allowed to strike.
He describes how the drivers are treated and recalls that all members of the newly elected works council at the delivery service Gorillas were made impossible in one way or another to stay in the company.
We are working, we are doing the work, and without us they are nothing. And this is the reason they are so afraid of strikes.
An activist from the 8 March AG of the FAU Berlin explains that much greater efforts will be needed to extend the right to strike.
In the hearing, Benedikt Hopmann, lawyer, spoke about the political and historical significance of this legal dispute.
He argued that the current German jurisprudence contradicts the European Social Charter (Part II Article 6 No. 4 of the Revised European Social Charter).
The opposing side pointed out that Germany had only signed the European Social Charter "with reservations".
Even if the court ruled in favour of gorillas on 25 April 2023, the last word has not yet been spoken. The comrade from FAU deduces from her experience that the resistance against conditions in which workers are disenfranchised by union busting and an anti-worker jurisdiction will continue:
We will find a way to be a movement that strikes wildly and doesn't care about the state. It's up to all of us, and I hope we are ready for the challenge.
A Union is established from striking Workers
A Union representative is established as a result of Striking Workers, not the other way round, so that Judge is wrong on his summary decision.