Strikes are declining, but bosses' collective bargaining is not

Fewer strikes, fewer lost days, fewer people involved – if you just look at the raw numbers in the new WSI industrial action balance, you might think that trade union calm is returning in Germany. The Economic and Social Sciences Institute of the Hans Böckler Foundation counted 261 industrial disputes for 2025, 645,000 lost working days and 552,000 strikers. Everything is noticeably less than in the previous year, when the aftermath of inflation caused widespread waves of warning strikes. But the real message of the study is not in the headline, but in the small print: For the first time, the WSI has evaluated what was actually fought over in the conflicts. Result: In more than one in four industrial disputes, it was not about more money, but simply about whether a company even recognized a collective agreement.

This is the real class struggle from below, which the economic sectors rarely call it that. More and more companies are saying goodbye to collective bargaining agreements or setting up outsourced subsidiaries in order to avoid collective bargaining - a quiet, legally supported attack that is just as effective as an open lockout, only without the bad press. Trade unions therefore have to use an increasing amount of their strength to stay at the negotiating table instead of arguing about wages. The 48-day strike by the Charité subsidiary CFM for alignment with the TVöD or the NGG's fight at the kebab meat producer Birtat are not side notes, they are the new normal: employees must first fight for the right to be protected by collective agreements before they can negotiate percentages.

There are also strategic reasons why the statistics still show a decline. Trade unions are increasingly relying on short, selective warning strikes instead of long, widespread conflicts - not out of weakness, but because indefinite forced strikes after a ballot are the absolute exception in Germany: just seven out of 261 industrial disputes in 2025. German strike law is restrictive compared to other European countries, and employers are increasingly taking legal action against strikes, thereby tying up union resources and increasing the risk for employees. Anyone who talks about a “pacified social partnership” is confusing deterrence with consensus.

The context makes the numbers even more bitter: While the statistics for 2025 show a decline, the next line of conflict is already rolling in in the fall of 2026. Ver.di and the DGB are calling for a nationwide day of action “Save the welfare state with us” on September 26th – against cuts in housing benefit, against the weakening of the eight-hour day, against longer, unfounded fixed-term contracts. It's the same movement, the same systemic question: Capital and the state are trying in lockstep to dismantle what generations have fought for - whether through collective bargaining in the company or through lawnmower cuts in the welfare state. Anyone who ignores one will not understand the other either.

For us as anti-fascists, this is not a sideshow. Economic insecurity, declining collective bargaining coverage and a hollowed-out welfare state are the breeding ground on which the extreme right sells its narrative of “those up there” and “those down there” – while it itself acts as the stirrup holder of capital. The fight for collective agreements is therefore also an anti-fascist fight: organized worker power is one of the few counterweights that can actually undermine the right. Anyone who doesn't go along in the fall leaves the field to those who thrive on desperation.

Sources

WSI press release: Labor dispute balance 2025·WSI industrial dispute balance 2024 (idw-online)·ver.di: Action day “Save the welfare state with us”, September 26, 2026·Reinhard Bispinck: Tariff policy graphics