On 26 November 1987, Krupp announced that it would close its steelworks in Duisburg-Rheinhausen. The workers learned of it from television and radio. On 10 December 1987, Krupp workers occupied the Rhine bridge between Rheinhausen and Hochfeld. That month, about 100,000 workers across the Ruhr stopped work. In February 1988, 80,000 people formed a human chain from Rheinhausen to the Westfalenhütte steelworks in Dortmund. ZDF calls the 160-day dispute the longest and hardest labor struggle in postwar German history. It only delayed the closure, and the works shut in 1993. On 20 January 1988, the protesters had renamed the bridge Brücke der Solidarität, Bridge of Solidarity. The city of Duisburg later adopted the name.
No Miner Fell Into Nothing
In February 2007, the federal government, the coal-mining states, the company RAG and the miners’ union agreed to end subsidized hard coal mining in Germany by the end of 2018, in a socially acceptable way. A law of 2008 put the agreement into effect. On 21 December 2018, the Prosper-Haniel mine in Bottrop closed in an official ceremony. It was the end of hard coal mining in Germany. In the 20 years before, the mining company RAG had cut more than 80,000 jobs. In June 2019, Bärbel Bergerhoff-Wodopia of the RAG Foundation said that every one of them had been cut in a socially acceptable way: Kein Bergmann ist ins Bergfreie gefallen. No miner fell into the unclaimed ground, that is, into nothing. About 200 employees refused every solution offered to them. RAG dismissed them.
The bounded trial
The German probationary period — Probezeit — is legally capped at six months, and once it ends the full protection of the dismissal statute attaches. The trial is bounded, short, and followed by something close to permanence. Both sides know the date.
The Mittelstand employer
The German mid-sized company sector, much of it family-owned across generations and often the principal employer in its town. Standorttreue — loyalty to the location — is a stated value in these firms, and moving production is discussed in local newspapers as a breach of something.
Phased retirement
Altersteilzeit, negotiated into many German collective agreements: the employee moves to half hours over several years, with the employer topping up the pay and the pension contributions. The exit is treated as a process to be arranged rather than a date.
The Works Constitution Act
Das Betriebsverfassungsgesetz gives the works council co-determination rights over working hours, overtime, holiday scheduling, monitoring of employees, and the rules of conduct in the workplace. On these matters the employer cannot act alone. Not consultation — agreement.
Severance by formula
German severance — Abfindung — is customarily calculated at half a month’s salary per year of service, and the formula is used in settlements and named in statute for certain dismissals. Length of service converts directly into money at a rate everyone knows before the conversation starts.
The social plan
Der Sozialplan. Where a German employer restructures in a way that disadvantages employees, the works council can require a negotiated agreement compensating those affected. If the two sides cannot agree, a conciliation board decides and its decision binds. The employer cannot simply proceed.
The lifetime civil servant
German civil servants are appointed for life — Beamte auf Lebenszeit. Roughly 1.7 million people hold the status, and it cannot be ended except by criminal conviction or disciplinary proceedings. Teachers, police, tax officials, many university staff. In exchange the Beamter gives up the right to strike.
The state offers permanence as the consideration.
The service anniversary
Das Dienstjubiläum. German companies formally mark ten, twenty-five and forty years of service — with a ceremony, a certificate, often a payment provided for in the collective agreement. Forty years with one employer is a milestone the institution is organised to celebrate.