"Berlin’s tech workers unite to fight for labor rights", 1 August 2022

Works councils, union-busting and wildcat strikes hark back to the bitter industrial disputes of the 1970s and 1980s.

But it is today's Berlin where there is a growing movement of workers who are organizing themselves — and employers who are resisting...

The tech giant [TikTok], owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is the latest in a series of tech companies that tried and failed to block employees from forming a works council, a workers' committee that can negotiate with management. There are other efforts underway at many of Berlin's tech darlings, including food-delivery firms Gorillas and Flink, as well as carmaker Tesla...

Workers at TikTok were organizing because "wages have not risen in tandem with the economic success, and employees have to put up with ever larger workloads”...

TikTok took legal action after employees pushed for a works council for the first time last year. It successfully blocked the first attempt because labor law requires the election of the council to happen in person and pandemic restrictions made that impossible. A second attempt two weeks ago succeeded, with the support of the trade union Ver.di, which said TikTok had dropped its initial opposition.

TikTok declined to comment...

Tesla management drew up a shortlist of its preferred candidates but failed to win enough support from workers, meaning the final committee had to include rival candidates.

Grocery-delivery service Gorillas made the unusual move of switching to a franchise model just days before a works council election, which made each warehouse an independent unit, a move that some said aimed to dodge the legal requirements.

A Gorillas spokesperson denied this, saying it "fully supported the process of forming the works council at all times and provided the employees with the necessary material resources."

Flink, Europe's largest grocery-delivery company, is right in the middle of maneuvers over council elections. The company pushed for a vote in July, while organizers wanted more time to explain the initiative to migrant workers and foreign students unfamiliar with the concept...

A Flink spokesperson said it only opposed the delay because it confused employees and that “due to the short notice and unclear communication we asked the labor court for support.”

The court didn't back the company, which means the election will now take place in September...

“We see that people who want to establish works councils are being harassed," said German Labor Minister Hubertus Heil earlier this year. Officials must "ensure that those who obstruct the formation of works councils will soon have to deal with the public prosecutor."

Germany's new startup strategy also cited the need for companies with a rapidly growing workforce to ascertain that "employees can exercise their co-determination rights at work.”