We are here to support our comrades
who were fired two years ago in this wildcat strike.
The reasons for the strike at that time were multiple.
But their claims were rightful. Among other things
there was the problem that the bikes were not repaired,
and this caused several accidents and severe injuries,
which means that the colleagues would risk their lives at the job.
I just want to say, Lieferando sometime ago just told us
that our bikes won't be repaired by Lieferando, either.
Just to tell you that this is still a hot take
and the companies are still not respecting this basic right
to have proper equipment, that we don't have to risk our lives every day going to work.
But of course,
that's not the reason this movement has become famous.
The reason is because it put on the table again, the fact that in Germany
in 2023, still in Germany, a country that prides itself to be democratic,
it is still illegal to strike as we want it.
Courts forbid strikes
without respecting a very specific set of rules
that makes striking for people working in our industry
pretty much impossible.
Democracy, -
this is the word that the Ministry of Labor, Hubertus Heil,
who was minister at that time, who is still minister today,
the Minister of Labor of Olaf Schulz,
he went to meet us in Kreuzberg two years ago and he told us
that he can't do anything about what the company does when they are hiring
or firing about the Tarifverträge.
But we should just
elect a Betriebsrat and see what's happening, because it's democracy!
Well, here, my colleagues, we are in front of the court.
We see what this means, democracy, for them.
You can see the hypocrisy of what they put behind this word.
Where is the democracy here, when the courts,
the court of Berlin isn't letting us strike as we want,
doesn't give us this basic right to strike for our living conditions?
Where is the democracy
when Kagan Sumer, the boss of Gorillas, who is a complete good for nothing,
He has made a company that's losing money.
He has sold the company for a billion Euros
And now the living conditions for the workers are still as disastrous as before.
Where is the democracy when, two years later,
all the members of the workers' council, of the Betriebsrat
have either been fired, their contracts have not been extended,
or they simply left because they couldn't stand the pressure, the constant pressure
from the management and the illegal actions from them.
There is no democracy in all of this.
Except what you are doing, the workers.
You are showing us all what democracy looks like,
what real democracy looks like.
It doesn't come from phony negotiations with politicians and management.
It comes from the workers themselves.
We are working.
We are doing the work. Without us, they are nothing.
And this is the reason they are so afraid of strikes.
You are an example to all of us that you kept on the fight until now.
I pray every single day that you are going to win this struggle
so that in the future, here in Germany, only we, the workers, will decide
whether we want to strike or not and how we do it.
Thank you.