House restrictions and lockouts. - Chinese supervisors torment German employees.
For the past 180 days, the company "SRW metalfloat" has been standing firm. The owner is the Chiho Environmental Group Limited based in Hong Kong, China, and their manager, Yongming Qin, has remained silent for six months.
The situation has now escalated. After deciding to postpone the strike with the workers last week due to a lack of results after 180 days, the Chinese have taken drastic measures. They have denied approximately 90 employees access to the plant and prevented them from returning to work since then. This will continue until at least May 31st.
This act is termed a "lockout" and is a part of the arsenal of industrial action - legally permissible. However, it is amusing that the communists from China of all places are employing methods from the 19th-century Manchester capitalists' toolbox.
"We are shocked by the coldness and disregard with which our colleagues are being treated by the people in charge at SRW," said Michael Hecker (35), a member of IG Metall in Leipzig. There have been no lockouts in Germany for the past 40 years during collective bargaining disputes. However, these Chinese owners seem to be strategically focusing on confrontation, trying to play games and buy time.
The lockouts are officially explained by difficulties in integrating the 180-day striking workers (approximately half of the company's workforce) back into their daily operations. "After months of silent treatment, false accusations were first made, and now the Chinese employer is trying to enforce its position with extreme harshness and aggression," says Steffen Reißig, an IG Metall spokesperson. The employer appears to be stuck in the 19th century.
The situation is growing increasingly difficult for the striking employees, particularly in terms of finances. During a lockout, unlike a formal dismissal, locked-out workers are not entitled to social benefits like unemployment benefits. This is stated in Section 160 of the German Social Security Code.
This issue has prompted Sören Pellmann (47), a member of the Left Party in the Bundestag, to write a letter to Federal Minister of Labor, Hubertus Heil. In the letter, Pellmann, a native of Leipzig, urges the change of this passage in the law.
Unfortunately, this proposal has come too late for the SRW scrap workers, as IG Metall has little to no options to help the affected employees until the end of the lockout.
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Source: symclub.org
