WEST GERMANY A new chapter in the West German
development, and the parties (notably, the left ones offered only vague promises of "substitute jobs" and "investment
Rheinhausen is writing a new chapter in the class struggle in West Germany. Instead of trade-union protest actions, a spontaneous movement of the entire workforce has developed.
The workers are organizing their struggle independently and in a democratic way. They are forcing their plant councils to account for its actions, especially in negotiations with the management. And decisions about action are being made in in plant
The official union apparatus is not leading the struggle. It is more or more or less tagging along, calling big industry-wide days of struggle, such as the one held by IG Metall on December 10. But it is raising quite feeble demands and attempting to shift the buck to Bonn and Brussels.
### Workers won't be fobbed off
The actions by the workforce are radical. They are not letting themselves be fobbed off anymore with symbolic protests. They are fighting to win their demands. A quotation is going around that illustrates this spirit. "If it really blows up here, the Hafenstrasse hellions [Hamburg squatters who have defended their homes against the police] will be like teddy bears compared to us." This has really frightened the
Among the population, the workers, with their determination, have received a widespread positive response. Churches, associations, women's groups, cultural groups, shopkeepers, and even sections of the media, all support this struggle because everything depends on steel. On December 3, there was a support demonstration by 10,000 high-school students.
Moreover, the workers have not limited the range of their action to Rheinhausen. They know that the struggle in the steel industry can only be won at an all-industry level. They are trying to draw in the workforces at other steel plants. To achieve this, the resistance of social-partnership oriented plant council majorities has often to be
If the union leadership wants to keep this struggle under control, then it has to offer a real perspective for the fight and not shift the responsibility onto the politicians. If they do not do that, it is possible that we may see here what has already begun in our West European neighbors. Alternative leaderships may form in the
The Krupp struggle points toward that. The workers at Rheinhausen are a great hope. They have shown that there is a alternative to yielding to the dictates of capitalism and to the passivity of the union leadership. *
"It's clear
that we
have got to
put on
more pressure"
THEO STEEGMANN is deputy chair of the factory council at Krupp Rheinhausen and a leading representative of the new left majority on the council. He is a steelworker who has been a factory council member for six years. The interview was conducted by Hermann Dirkes on December 30.
S PRODUCTION going on again at
Yes. When the struggle began at the end of November, the workers decided on flexible tactics. At the outset, some workers favored an unlimited strike until the closure concept was eliminated. But finally they opted for these flexible tactics, because the technical arrangements in such steelworks are very complicated. The longer the mechanisms are out of action, the more difficult it is to get the furnaces going again and bring them up to the right
This tactic is called "stop and go". In this way, the management cannot calculate when the workers are going to strike and when they are going to produce. This naturally assumes that the workers are technically able to control such operations. They have shown that they can do that. • What is the relationship between the workforce and the union?
The central point in a big plant in the steel industry is the factory council. The last factory council elections in April 1987 very markedly changed its composition, giving it a left, a more radical majority. For the first time in 26 years, we had a choice of individual candidates rather than
Steegmann
(DR)
WEST GERMANY the traditional slates. The blue- and whitecollar workers could check 29 candidates. That led to a big increase in confidence. From the outset, we said, the workers and the factory councils are waging this struggle together. The factory councils are making no decisions not first discussed and approved by the workers. This approach has further increased confidence, although the workers are understandably nervous. All important questions are being widely discussed before decisions are made. Compromises or results of negotiations are first put to the workers for a vote before the factory council endorses them. Over the whole period, the factory council has stuck • Are negotiations going on now with
We have always stressed that we are ready to negotiate, as soon as the management abandons its closure plans. On December 12, we reached a temporary compromise, in which the management again pledged to respect the agreement it concluded with us on September 10. We have also managed to get negotiations over various models designed to keep the factory operating. Subsequently, it it has become clear that Krupp wants to maintain its cooperation with Mannesmann and Thyssen, because that is more profitable. Naturally, that has not helped to reassure the workers. They see that the danger of elimination of • It seems that the determination to defend existing jobs and not rely on vague promises of substitute jobs is quite
Yes. But there are two levels, and that is also true in the policy of the union. We are demanding that the factory be kept open, because we cannot let ourselves be reassured by such phrases as "We will create 8,000 substitute jobs by and by." No one today can answer the question of where these jobs are supposed to come from. From the outset, people consider all that a political maneuver or deception. And they are right, in view of all the past experience.
On the other hand, we are not fighting necessarily for maintaining a particular workplace. None of us is especially anxious to work in the furnaces - the work there is not particularly pleasant, no one likes working seven-day swing shifts. But as long as there is no guarantee of new jobs in