West Germany: Endangered Miracle

One of the mainstays of West Germany's postwar "economic miracle" was its skilled and disciplined workers, who willingly accepted low wages while producing first-class products that won quick acceptance on the world market. In the rush to rebuild the war-ravaged nation, both management and workers proudly summed up their common attitude, Deutsche streiken nicht—Germans don't strike. But Germans now do, and last week West Germany was in the grips of its severest labor crisis since the depression of the early '30s. The strike put 400,000 workers in the southwest state of Württemberg-Baden out of work and threatened to spread throughout the country.

But real wage discipline has not lasted. In the past twelve years, German wages have risen 156%, while productivity has risen only 107%. As a result, German goods have become more expensive and profit margins in most German industries have narrowed alarmingly. Concerned that German goods will be priced out of the world market. Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard in February warned that wage increases this year should be held to 3½%

Employers eagerly seized on Erhard's figure, but the figure did not please ambitious Otto Brenner, 55, boss of the 1.9 million-member German metalworkers' union, the world's largest single union and sole bargaining agent for workers in 30% of Germany's industrial plants. When companies in Württemberg-Baden refused to grant an 8% wage increase to the metalworkers (who now draw an average 77¢ an hour), Brenner called a strike against such strategic targets as automaking Daimler-Benz and Bosch, which makes electrical systems for most German autos. Other employers retaliated by locking out workers at scores of other plants that Brenner had not struck.

Brenner and Erhard scheduled a meet ing in an attempt to head off the strike before it spreads to the heavily industrialized Ruhr, where workers have already voted for a strike. Meanwhile, Volkswagen, Opel and Ford warned that they will have to close down this week because of a shortage of supplies. Unless Erhard can find some way to keep a wage settlement within reasonable bounds, the German miracle is in trouble; 10 million other German workers have already put in new wage claims.