Plant Closures and Strikes in Germany

Abstract

In Germany in recent years, strikes over plant closures have been frequent. What is unexpected, however, is that these strikes first occurred in Germany only in 1998. Conventionally, when closing plants, a “social planning” mechanism has been used in which the employee representative committee and the employer agree on measures such as compensation and reemployment assistance, in accordance with the Works Constitution Act （if the two sides cannot agree, the arbitration committee creates a social plan）. However, at the time of negotiations, the employee representative committee is not authorized to strike, creating an important limitation.Therefore, in recent years, collective agreements may specify the contents of social planning. This collective agreement is called “social agreement”. Unlike social planning, employers and trade unions are the parties to negotiations, and trade unions can use the power of strikes to win compensation and other benefits that cannot be achieved through social planning.In this paper, we will examine specific cases of such strikes and various problems such as legal limitations.