DeZIM_talk | Striking together?

Strikes are considered a key instrument for enforcing better working conditions. At the same time, they face particular challenges when workforces are divided along the lines of origin, gender, qualification or employment status. The DeZIM_talk takes these tensions as its starting point and discusses the conditions under which labor disputes can involve different groups of employees and where structural limits become visible.

The focus will be on experiences from different historical and institutional contexts. The so-called wildcat strikes by migrant workers in North Rhine-Westphalia in the 1970s are discussed, as are current labor disputes by outsourced employee groups in the public sector. Both examples show how closely linked issues of migration, workplace fragmentation and collective agency are.

The starting point for the discussion is a short reading from the novel "Die Optimistinnen" by Gün Tank. The novel makes the perspectives of migrant workers, especially women in industrial employment in the 1970s, tangible in literature and opens up access to the social and emotional dimensions of labor struggles. Afterwards, the guests will discuss the conditions of joint strike practice, ruptures and alliances between groups of workers as well as continuities and differences between historical and contemporary conflicts.
 

A particular focus will be on the comparison between the strike at Hella in Lippstadt in 1973 and the most recent industrial action at the outsourced service company Charité Facility Management, which demanded alignment with the collective agreement for the public sector. The focus is on the question of which structural conditions favor collective action and which institutional arrangements make it more difficult.

Guests:

• Agnieszka Jastrzębska, co-organizer of the strike at Charité Facility Management for alignment with TVöD
• Irina Vavitsa, co-organizer of the strike at Hella in Lippstadt in 1973
• Gün Tank, author of "The Optimists"

Moderation:

• Dr. Friederike Römer Head of the Consensus and Conflict Department (DeZIM)

Registration until 17.02.26, 18:00 via the following link: REGISTRATION