Fewer strike days recorded in Germany


New strike statistics show that just over a million workers in Germany took strike action in 2016 — a similar number to previous years — but that the number of working days lost to strike action was sharply down. 


According to the figures, produced by the WSI research body close to the German DGB trade union confederation, there were 1,055,000 strikers in 2016. This was similar to the 1,133,000 recorded for 2015. 


However, the number of days lost fell from 2,002,000 in 2015, to 462,000 in 2016. 


Heiner Dribbusch, the WSI expert who compiled the figures, said the difference was that “this time, the big weeks-long industrial stoppages were missing”. 


Instead, 2016 was characterised by brief warning strikes which involved large numbers but only lasted a few hours.