German workers take strike action onto the Web

Employees at a computer science research centre in Berlin, Germany have taken industrial action onto the Internet because of fears of wage cuts. The workers have replaced a proportion of the company Web site text with dollar signs to make it unreadable.

A spokesman for the workers said: "They want to cut our wages by 13.5 per cent, our answer is to cut their Internet information by 13.5 per cent."

First, an institute of computer software and architecture owned by the federal research centre for computer science (GMD), was moved from west to east Berlin after re-unification in 1992. Although wages were considerably lower in the ex-communist country, First's employees' claim they were told their current salaries and benefits would not be affected by the move.

But the protesters say GMD is now considering reducing the pay level for new contracts, and freezing pay increases on existing contracts, until they reach current average eastern German levels - 13.5 per cent below the West German average.

Niko Stumpfoegger, spokesman for OeTV, the public services, transport and traffic union, said the Web strike is intended to draw attention to the workers' plight. "Our first aim," he said, " is to get GMD's other 1,200 German workers to join in the Web strike. Our second is to force the management to make a better offer."

The strikers claim it will become impossible to recruit well-qualified computer scientists if there is a gap in wage levels. Only 20 metres away from First's offices, the Institute for Computer Science at the Humboldt university pays a higher salary because it is a state-run institution.

The workers stress that the strike is still only symbolic at the moment, but Stumpfoegger warned that if the Web sabotage doesn't work, action could well break out beyond the Internet into an industrial strike.