Streik Der Lkw-Fahrer Droht Zu Eskalieren: "Wir Werden Respektlos Behandelt" I Länderspiegel

Three to four weeks ago, everything changed. Your employer, the one who was supposed to pay you, declared that they wouldn't be giving you anything at all. They offered a paltry 5000 Euros, a mere 80 Euros per driver. Edwina Thema was appointed by the unions as the leading negotiator. She frequently called the Polish employer, the drivers from Georgia and Uzbekistan who have been without pay for months. Their fleet of around 60 trucks has been idle at the Gräfenhausen rest stop for four weeks. They came to Europe to earn money to support their families back home. Now, they are being treated with such disrespect. They are all very angry. According to the law, after two weeks of non-stop work, they should have been given two days off and a room to sleep in at a hotel. None of this has happened, and they work tirelessly every day, up to 15 hours a day. Even the 56-year-old man, who has been working hard, has been doing overtime and hasn't even received payment for it. He says he hasn't been paid since 3 months ago. I have been without payment since 11 months. I live in my truck, eating and sleeping in it. At home in Georgia, my wife Kara, two children, and four grandchildren all depend on the money I earn in Europe. We live in a small apartment of around two square meters. The food at the rest stop can usually be too expensive for me to afford. When I started this work last year, the boss first told me that he wouldn't pay on Sundays. In the first month, we didn't receive any pay. It was said that we would receive the money after we had worked for a year. All drivers here are very grateful for the great solidarity they have experienced in Gräfenhausen in the past weeks.

The Unseen Heroes: The Solidarity of the Road

Ingrid from the Catholic industrial chaplaincy comes regularly here and communicates with the drivers, thanks to the Google translator. Thank God, things are going well for us in Germany, in Europe, and beside us. We are no longer afraid because what happened on Good Friday has not only shocked the drivers but also caused outrage in the whole country. A Panzerwagen with security personnel arrived at the rest stop, ordered by the Polish employer Masur, who was also there and had the action filmed by a right-wing Polish broadcaster. The shipping company wanted to retrieve their trucks with the goods. Their security personnel tried to force the drivers out of their cabins by force. The police intervened and prevented this. A situation that has also caused concern for the mayor responsible for the area. We are truly grateful that we can also take care of this here that it doesn't get worse that no one was hurt and that the shipping company has apparently been persuaded and has at least paid a part of the salaries in the first step, but it won't be more money.

The Battle for Justice: The Unseen Heroes Fight Back

The shipping company claims in the ZDF interview that I stole the truth in the contract. It says that the money is to be paid only after a half a month. The workers agreed to this and now Herr Artema from the union says that I owe the company around 97,000 Euros. The shipping company is always in telephone contact with us when these weeks in Gräfenhausen are being negotiated. It's about more than a half a month that hasn't been paid. Edwin a Thema says that it's characteristic that the company doesn't have any documents. All documents can be checked correctly. That's what the company didn't want. That's the business model of Best of Intersparten, transporte, internship, economical prison. More than 60 drivers went on strike in Gräfenhausen for their rights and experienced the solidarity of German truck drivers. Jürgenius brought snacks on his way to Heidelberg. I hope this will soon come to an end. There are thousands of them and this couple also came to the rest stop to look after the physical well-being of the drivers. [Laughter] Preparing food here on the parking lot is probably very difficult. It's only a small thing for which the strikers are very grateful. No one knows how long they will be here. They want to end their strike only when all drivers have received their