Germany is rocked by a "mega strike"

Hundreds of thousands of public transport workers walked off the job in Germany on Monday, bringing the country to a standstill. The strike began at midnight and is set to end at midnight on Tuesday. Eight major German airports were affected, with around 380,000 travelers left stranded. Deutsche Bahn said all long-distance services were canceled, while regional services were only restarting in some areas by Monday evening. Freight trains were halted too, as was shipping traffic in and out of Hamburg.

The strike is the result of demands for wage hikes issued by several major trade unions. Verdi, a public services union representing some 2.5 million employees, seeks a pay rise of 10.5%, but no less than €500. EVG, a union representing 230,000 employees at Deutsche Bahn and some other bus companies, is demanding a 12% wage increase but no less than €650. This is the largest such strike in decades, with 400,000 workers taking part in the strike. Verdi chief Frank Werneke told German media that securing a pay rise is a matter of survival for many thousands of employees struggling to cope with the rising cost of living.

Germany has seen its industrial output shrink and inflation rise to 8.7% in February, up from a steady rate of 0-2% between the mid-1990s and the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine last year. Germany was heavily dependent on Russian gas and oil imports before the conflict, which all but ceased following the EU's imposition of sanctions and the allegedly US-orchestrated destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. Fitch predicted that the German economy will enter recession by late 2023.