IG Metall, the largest workers union in Germany, has taken to the warpath in a quest to gain what it considers fair wages for German workers. Consider the following excerpt from the Associated Press:

Germany’s most powerful industrial union on Thursday threatened to call strikes next week if employers fail to come up with what they consider a fair offer in wage negotiations.The head of the IG Metall union, Berthold Huber, said employers had to come up with an offer “worthy of discussion” to prevent the union’s 3.6 million members from launching a wave of short-term strikes.The union is seeking an 8 percent increase in wages over the next 12 months.”There needs to be a return to fairness in this nation,” Huber said.In the southwestern state of Baden-Wuertemberg, home to automakers Daimler AG and Porsche SE, employers offered only 2.9 percent, citing the difficult global financial situation.IG Metall’s regional branch rejected the offer. The union argues that an 8 percent rise over the next 12 months is justified on the basis that, while companies’ profits rose by 220 percent between 2004 and 2007, wages effectively increased by only 8.7 percent.

According to a Bertelsmann Foundation survey, the majority of German workers think their country’s economic system is not fair. Many of these people are upset by the fact that their nation is the largest goods exporter in the world and yet is still plagued by low wages and high unemployment. They feel that since their nation’s firms and corporations form the economic heart of Europe, their government should be able to do more for the average citizen.

These same feelings abounded in 1930s Germany and were instrumental in the rise of Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist government. For a more in-depth analysis of the dangers presented by German’s current economic situation, read “The 1930s All Over Again.”