Employees of airports, rail, sea freight, motorway companies, local transport are called from midnight (22:00 GMT) to 24:00 work stoppage.

This mobilization is part of a context of growing social tensions in Germany, where strikes for wages have multiplied since the beginning of the year, from schools to hospitals, including the Post Office.

Unlike countries like France, such a unitary movement between the EVG and Ver.di unions, representing 230,000 railway employees and 2.5 million service employees respectively, is extremely rare.

Favourable soil

This "Mega-Streik" - as the German media have already dubbed it - affects a country where prices have soared for more than a year, with inflation reaching 8.7% in February.

The unions are demanding more than 10% wage increases.

Employers (states, municipalities, public companies) propose a 5% increase with two single payments of 1,000 and 1,500 euros.

EVG and Ver.di expect a "broad mobilization". Deutsche Bahn decided to completely suspend mainline traffic on Monday, warning that disruptions would also be very significant in the regions.

Flights cancelled at Munich airport during a strike, March 26, 2023 © Christof STACHE / AFP

The Federation of German Airports (DAV) denounced a strategy of "escalating strikes on the model of the France", where days of mobilization follow one another against the pension reform.

"A social conflict that has no repercussions is a harmless social conflict," replied Frank Werneke, president of the Ver.di union.

The breeding ground is increasingly favorable to the social movement in Germany, which is moving away from the culture of consensus that has made its reputation.

"There have been more strikes in the last ten years in Germany than in previous decades," Karl Brenke, an expert at the DIW economic institute, told AFP.

With unemployment at a particularly low level since the late 2000s, the country suffers from a labour shortage that puts unions "in a position of strength" in negotiations, according to Brenke.

Since the mid-2010s, they have managed to impose increases, after a decade marked by the wage moderation policy of the Gerhard Schröder era, in the name of competitiveness.

Workers walk on the tracks at Hagen station, Germany, March 24, 2023 © INA FASSBENDER / AFP

In 2015, a record was recorded, with more than 2 million strike days in the year. Real wages increased systematically from 2014 to 2021, except in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The momentum was broken by inflation in 2022, with a decline of 3.1%.

Employees "are tired of being led by the nose into collective bargaining", according to Mr Werneke.

"Kept alive"

The mobilization for wages in services has been accompanied since the beginning of the year by demonstrations.

"The price of petrol and food has gone up, my wallet has felt it," said Timo Stau, 21, who met at a demonstration on Berlin's iconic Friedrichstrasse.

"We have kept the public service alive during the pandemic. Now we want more money," said Petra, 60, a customs officer.

A nearly deserted metro station in Dortmund, Germany, March 24, 2023 © INA FASSBENDER / AFP

After the threat of an "open-ended strike", the 160,000 employees of Deutsche Post, who negotiate separately, have already obtained an average wage increase of 11.5% at the beginning of March.

At the end of 2022, nearly 4 million German industrial workers achieved an 8.5% wage increase over two years, after several weeks punctuated by work stoppages.

But the protest is broader. "It's not just a question of salary but of means," Jan Exner Konrad, 34, told AFP at a teachers' demonstration in Berlin on Thursday.

© 2023 AFP