Germany on strike

This coming Sunday I'm supposed to fly to Washington, using Lufthansa from Frankfurt Airport. This doesn't bode well. It happened to me before that circumstances beyond my control have spoilt a duty trip there.

A couple of years ago, an Icelandic volcano with a name to difficult to pronounce spat so much ash into the atmosphere that transatlantic flights had to be cancelled. Back then, the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank got underway basically without any European taking part.

Now there's a danger of the meetings taking part without Germans. Perhaps with the sole exception of Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who will be able to hop on a government plane. Following their industrial action on Tuesday, Lufthansa's pilots could easily choose to strike again on the weekend.

Don't get me wrong - I've got nothing against pilots. They have a respectable job. Just like those train conductors organized in the German GDL union. Or the clinicians affiliated with the Marburg Union. Or the flight controllers and signal tower operators and what have you.

I'm opposed to small professional branches being able to exploit their key positions in order to secure privileges that others just won't get.

There was a time in Germany when things went according to the principle, "One factory, one union." And it made sense. It made collective bargaining much simpler and didn't lead to massive production stoppages because strikes were few and far between.

But nowadays Germany seems to be on its way to becoming a full-fledged republic of strikes. Small professional branches have realized they can cripple half the nation with relatively little effort - and out of totally selfish considerations to boot.

Lufthansa pilots for instance want to be able to retire at the age of 59 and get generous transitional pay. That's a privilege that no one else in the country enjoys. And every day of strike action means a loss of some 70 million euros ($88 million) for their employers - just for the record.

A union representing only a small professional branch is nothing but a bunch of egocentric parasites. It drives a wedge into the workforce organized in the big umbrella unions and chips away at free collective bargaining in the country.

Should, against all odds, a Lufthansa pilot fly me to Washington on the weekend, I'll be grateful for his skills, professionalism and circumspection. But that doesn't mean I have to like him and his Vereinigung Cockpit union.