FAU Demonstrator in front of Babylon Cineman (photo: O. Wolters)

On June 10th, 2010, Berlin's Higher Regional Court will decide if the Free Workers' Union (FAU) Berlin may once more call itself a union. The circumstances under which this ban came about are both absurd and indicative of the state of labor rights in Germany.

To increase profit capitalism needs labor--cheap labor working long hours. We feel it day in and day out. This pressure increasingly leads to downsizing; fewer workers do more. At the same time precarious work is on the rise--temps, short-term contracts, freelancers, part-timers and workfare. Whether your job is precarious or secure, if you remain inactive the pressure increases. Organization in the workplace and beyond is a natural form of resistance. When workers unite it's called a union.

In Germany, the union landscape is bleak. There's the DGB: big union that sees itself as a service provider, where workers take part vicariously for the most part, where those who become active are looked upon with suspicion and where workers in small companies often fall by the way side. Then there are various forms of "yellow" unions, organizations that the bosses control. For good reason, these are often prevented from signing contracts by the courts because they are funded by big business. The few other trade unions that have managed to get a foothold in Germany remain bastions of highly skilled workers, such as railway engineers, pilots and doctors.

However, self-organized, militant unions hold promise. Unions that help one help one's self. Unions where the workers have the say and not officials. Unions that aim to fundamentally change society. Unions like the FAU.

In November 2008, workers at Berlin's Babylon Mitte cinema began to rise up against precarious job conditions, which exist despite the hundreds of thousands in government funding the cinema receives. In a first act of defiance, they formed a shop council, one of the few instruments employees have to force bosses to recognize labor laws. Through the shop council's actions they were finally granted basics such as sick and vacation pay.

However, if they wanted to force their bosses to increase their demeaningly low wages, then they would have to join a union. Only unions can take job action and negotiate collective agreements in Germany. They couldn't form their own union as unions must also have a structure that goes beyond one company. After calls to ver.di--the branch of the DGB responsible for cinema workers--remained unanswered, they decided to join the FAU Berlin.

Together with the majority of the Babylon's employees the FAU Berlin presented a contract proposal to management in June 2009. Management, however, refused to negotiate; the FAU Berlin started job action and called for a boycott, which was banned by labor courts in October 2009. The pressure works, though: The Berlin Senate approved even more funding and ver.di appeared on the scene and negotiated a contract with management, without consulting staff.

Being prevented from taking job action, the FAU wasn't able to influence contract negotiations. Whereby, according to German law the FAU Berlin theoretically fulfils all of the requirements to legally take job action: It has a structure that goes beyond the Babylon, it isn't the bosses' tool and most importantly it can force bosses into making concessions. Yet laws are up to interpretation and it would have taken a very brave judge indeed to entrust a labor dispute in the hands of the workers. Not surprisingly, without the support of the staff the ver.di-Babylon contract negotiation ended in a lopsided victory for the bosses.

Yet the peak of indignation was to follow. The FAU Berlin was ordered to stop calling itself a union or grassroots union by the Berlin Regional Court in January 2010. The Babylon management, their lawyers and the judiciary teamed up, and their definition of what a union is prevails over that of the workers. In April 2010 the FAU Berlin, whose only crime was forming a union with the Babylon workers, was fined 200 euros--for calling themselves a union.

The fact that the FAU Berlin is precluded from workplace activity is a bitter consequence of this ruling. However, what is much more disturbing is that it provides a legal template for illegitimizing the work of all grassroots unions in Germany--it's an attempt to discredit a movement, to ban it from realms of labor struggle and cast it in the light of an agitprop group.

As opposed to other European countries where pluralistic and militant union landscapes exist, there isn't much of a choice when it comes to unions in Germany. The result: the working class will likely bear the brunt of the financial crisis without much resistance. In the face of globalization, the powers that be have decided that the only solution is to turn Germany into a low-wage country. Unions that encourage workers to take their fate into their own hands and question this fait accompli are not welcome.

Regardless of how Berlin's Higher Regional Court decision on the appeal case, the FAU Berlin will continue to act in the interest of workers. The question is whether this court will prove as arrogant as the lower court and prevent the FAU Berlin from calling itself what it is: the workers united.

For more information and ideas how to help, visit www.fau.org/verbot/en

e-mail:: faub-soli@fau.org homepage:: http://www.fau.org/verbot/en

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