Working Less

A shorter week in Germany

Labor unrest is hitting Europe. In Britain last week, striking truck drivers disrupted imports and food deliveries. In Spain, state employees briefly shut down the railroads in one of the biggest walkouts since the civil war. French steelworkers struck in Lorraine for a day to protest job cuts. But peace of sorts came to the Ruhr Valley as West German steelworkers voted to end a bitter 45-day strike.

This dispute, the country's second longest in any industry since World War II, was the latest and most dramatic example of the growth of labor tensions in Germany. As layoffs loom in some troubled basic industries, the once cooperative German unions are becoming more and more militant. Disruptive strikes, previously rare, are increasing.

Unlike the disputes in last year's walkouts by the dockers, metalworkers and printers, the key issue in the steel fight was not wages but job security. The union wanted a cut in the work week from 40 to 35 hours to stem steel layoffs, which have been running at 1,000 a month for four years in an industry that has about 300,000 workers. But with profits sharply down because of import competition, the steelmakers refused. The settlement allows both sides to claim a token victory. Officially the week remains 40 hours, but workers will now get extra time off that will effectively cut their on-the-job time to 38 hours.

The collapse of the national 40-hour norm gives other unions a target to follow. Said a spokesman for the Federation of Unions: "A beginning has been made. From now on reduced hours will be a standard demand." That could mean trouble for Europe's strongest economy and the end of the social contract that had produced a quarter century of industrial peace. German labor may be catching the British disease.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.