German ingrates strike for 8% pay increase

In a country with a double-digit unemployment rate, German nationals who work for the US military have decide they want their cake and eat it, too, according to Stars and Stripes;

Thousands of local national base workers, who support U.S. and other foreign military operations at facilities all over Germany, are on strike demanding an 8 percent pay raise.

Wolfgang Brunner, a union representative leading negotiations for the strikers, said 3,000 to 4,000 base workers struck Monday, with another 4,000 due to strike Tuesday.

U.S. Army Europe spokesman Bruce Anderson said Monday that more than 17,000 local nationals work at U.S. military facilities in Germany.

Oh, the horrors! Does this mean the Polish Smoke Brigade won’t be laying down the smoke screens at Grafenwohr and Hohenfels on schedule? Does that mean that the German we’ve become accustomed to seeing stretched out in the sun behind the BOQ with empty beer bottles strewn about him won’t be there today? Will we have to pump our own gas at the AAFES pumps? There won’t be anyone at the AAFES garage to tell us they can’t get that oil filter we need for our German cars?

“Gas, milk, bread … all are very expensive, not to mention the cost of health insurance,” [Karl Heinz Winter, a union representative for German workers] said.

Well, then find other jobs on the German economy, you ingrate. See how expensive those things are then. And I thought German health care was the best in the world? Isn’t socialized medicine the answer to all of our woes? I can’t remember how many Germans tell me about the benefits of their free health care.

They don’t need to spend a lot of money on work clothes – unless the price has risen on those Jethro Bodine overalls.

Category: Usual Suspects