German Unity Talks Open Amid Labor Unrest
- Share via
EAST BERLIN — East and West Germany opened talks Friday on a final unification treaty as more than 120,000 East German industrial workers staged strikes in a dramatic surge of labor unrest over fears of unemployment in the newly united German economy, union officials said.
Several thousand workers have walked out every day this week in search of job guarantees and hefty pay hikes. But Friday’s action raised discontent to a new pitch.
A spokesman for the IG Metall union said the latest walkouts involved metal and electrical workers in the Berlin region who were pressing for a resumption of negotiations with the management of industries being sold off.
Management has resisted union demands for major pay and benefit boosts because productivity remains low and industries are said to be grappling with cash-flow problems in switching to West Germany’s strong deutschemark.
Both unemployment and prices are rocketing as brittle state enterprises have crumbled and consumer subsidies have disappeared in East Germany’s painful evolution this year from a Communist command economy to a free market.
East German industrial workers make an average of $147 for a 43-hour workweek, a third to a half of what their West German counterparts take home for a 38-hour week.
Prices for everyday consumer needs have jumped to West German heights since Sunday’s merger of the German economies, under which East Germany adopted the deutschemark as its currency. The unification talks that opened Friday in East Berlin are aimed at completing political and legal union by December. The talks are to settle issues relating to constitutional changes, property rights and the electoral procedure for the Dec. 2 all-German elections.
East German Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere hailed the start of the negotiations as “a historic day on the way to German unity.”
He added that the East German government is determined that “Berlin will be included in the treaty as the old and new capital of Germany.” Bonn is the capital of West Germany.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
