E. Germans Strike for 1st Time in 60 Years

Eastern Germany’s first official strike in more than 60 years began Monday, bringing parts of the region’s metalworking and steel industries to a halt and further dimming the prospects for economic recovery in the depressed former Communist area.

According to officials at the giant IG Metall trade union, roughly 18,000 of the 420,000 employed in both branches were idle Monday in Saxony and Brandenburg, while workers in the Baltic coastal state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania are scheduled to join the strike today.

So far, there are no imminent plans to extend the stoppages into the far larger factories in western Germany.

The last time strikes were held in eastern Germany was in 1932, before the Nazis--and later the Communists--crushed independent labor unions.

The Monday walkouts follow a decision by employers in both industries to suspend a 2-year-old contract that includes a plan to bring eastern wages up to western levels by the spring of 1995.

That contract, drawn up at a time when many economic analysts were convinced that eastern Germany’s economic recovery would be swift and relatively easy, called for a 26% pay increase last April 1.

But with eastern industry decimated by its exposure to western-style competition, the country in recession and production levels lagging far below expectations, those same economic analysts now agree that such a large wage increase would be catastrophic for companies in the region.

That prognosis was only sharpened Monday with a report compiled by the country’s five leading economic institutes that Germany’s recession is deeper and will last longer than initially expected.

Instead of a possible drop of 0.5% to 1% in gross domestic product (GDP) predicted earlier, Germany’s slide will most likely be in the region of 1.5%, according to the institutes.

They suggested that no recovery is likely before next winter at the earliest.

Despite the economic gloom and an eastern jobless rate of around 30%, union leaders are demanding the contract be honored.

Rank-and-file eastern workers, who view the contract suspension as just one more broken promise from a western-dominated leadership, voted by majorities of between 85% to 90% to strike.

Wage negotiations are to resume early today in Dresden.