1 May trade union rallies Trade Unions call for “the Minimum”

At the same time Sommer referred to the repeated statements on a lack of specialist workers in Germany as being dishonest: It was “the same people who have not been training youngsters and throwing out (their) older workers…who now deplore the lack of” skilled workers.

The leader of the DGB went on to say: “We’ve got an answer for these hypocrites: training for youngsters, employment opportunities for older workers too, work for all. That is the minimum!”

Union boss Huber: “Brutalization of the job market”

The leader of the powerful IG Metal Berthold Huber at a union rally in Nuremberg called into question the use of agency workers, mini-jobs and other forms of precarious employment in light of the welfare state requirements stipulated in the German Basic Law. “We have to defend ourselves against this brutalization of the job market,” said Huber. Huber claimed that those particularly affected, the young, could not plan for the future. In addition, he said, poverty in old-age was being pre-programmed through low pay. The Federal Government had to introduce a comprehensive minimum wage, without exceptions and across all fields of work. Only so could the worst exploitation be prevented. The leader of the IG Bau, construction workers union Klaus Wiesehügel warned likewise of an abuse of the new freedom of movement whereby companies employ contract workers from eastern European countries to dumping wages. He feared that such workers would be fobbed of with low wages under 5 euros an hour.

Fewer numbers at May 1 rallies

Fair pay and the opening of the job market to workers from Eastern Europe were the core topics of the main trade union rallies on 1 May. Under the slogan "That is the Minimum", the unions called for equal pay for agency workers and permanent workforce.

This year 423,000 attended the rallies, a drop of 41,000 compared to the previous year