workers rallied across Germany

By Carsten Hoefer

Nuremberg, Germany (dpa)— Workers took to the streets across Germany on Friday as they took part in traditional May Day demonstrations to mark International Workers’ Day, with unions rallying against planned cuts to health care and social security benefits.

“If we are attacked, we will defend ourselves,” said Yasmin Fahimi, president of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), at the main May Day rally in Nuremberg.

“You must remain ready for a fight in the coming weeks and months,” she told an estimated several thousand protesters.

Germany’s trade unions organized several hundred May Day rallies across the country, held under the slogan “Our jobs first, your profits second.”

The main demands include the preservation of the eight-hour workday and secure pensions, as well as the introduction of higher taxes on large fortunes.

According to the trade unions, companies should only receive state funding if they also invest in Germany. Secure jobs and social security must take precedence over employers’ profit interests.

DGB chief Fahimi reiterated those demands. “Anyone who attacks the level of pension provision is provoking a major social conflict,” she said. “We are capable of mobilizing against this pension theft, and we will fight it off.”

workers rallied across Germany

Fahimi slammed planned reforms of Germany’s national health care scheme approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday as “a cutback on your healthcare,” adding that “we will not stand for it.”

While she expressed the trade unions’ willingness in principle to embrace reform, Fahimi stressed that it should be high earners who should foot the bill. She called for a wealth tax, a “fair” inheritance tax and a higher top tax rate.

“The people who really need tax relief are the workers in this country.”

The leadership of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD), the junior coalition partner in government, also addressed workers to show their support.

Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil addressed crowds in the town of Bergkamen in the Ruhr region, a former industrial heartland.

His fellow SPD leader and Labour Minister Bärbel Bas gave a speech in nearby Duisburg, her constituency and a long-time stronghold for the party which has been struggling with historically low approval ratings amid accusations that it is not sufficiently working towards protecting the rights of workers.