The German rail strike and the lessons of the Telekom betrayal: Build a mass movement against the grand coalition government!

It is against this background that the unions have taken over the job of blunting workers’ militancy and reining in strikers. The contract signed last weekend by the Verdi union with Deutsche Telekom is a scandalous sellout. Any union putting its signature to such a deal has lost the right to describe itself as an organization defending the interests of its members. The union is, in fact, nothing more than an disciplinary instrument operating at the behest of management and a straitjacket for its members, who not only are robbed of their incomes, but required to pay union dues to boot.

In mid-May, 96 percent of those Telekom workers affected by new management plans voted in favor of strike action and their dispute met with broad popular support