BY CARL-ERIK ISACCSSON

STOCKHOLM - More than 100,000 metalworkers at Daimler-Benz and other companies held strikes and rallies across Germany October 1 to protest government austerity measures. German Chancellor Helmut Kohl won parliamentary approval September 13 for the austerity package, which he put forward this spring. The Bundesrat, the upper chamber of parliament, rejected the plan in July. But the Bundestag, the lower house, approved the package 341 to 324, a large enough margin to force its implementation.

Leaders of Kohl's coalition stated the measures were essential to meet goals of limiting budget deficits to 3 percent of the gross domestic product. This is required by countries who signed the Maastricht treaty for a European "common currency."

The main pillar in the package is a lowering of sick-leave payments mandated by law from 100 percent of wages to 80 percent, effective October 1, 1996. Many workers are covered by contracts that give 100 percent but employers threaten to lower the payments, claiming the contracts were based on existing legislation.

It's "a black Friday for the welfare state" the trade union DAG stated after the vote. The DGB union federation warned of "social conflicts never experienced in Germany" if the employers try to enforce lower sick-leave payments. Thousands of workers at Daimler-Benz factories in Sindelfingen, Stuttgart, and Bremen refused to work overtime September 28 to protest the companies' decision to lower the payments following the Bundestag vote.

Included in the austerity package is raising the retirement age from 60 for women and 63 for men to 65 years in stages over the next few years, to take full effect in 2000. Seniority rights will be ended in companies with less than 10 employees.

Other parts of the plan, such as a proposed lowering of child allowances and abolishing taxes on wealth and business capital, must be approved by the Bundesrat and will be voted on in December. Minister of Health Horst Seehofer declared soon after the vote that what was decided was only a minimum program and announced further cuts in health and retirement insurance.

Wolfgang Weng, parliamentary budget spokesperson, said he soon expected a new austerity package. Der Spiegel, a German weekly, published a trial balloon of a package of 7 billion marks (1 mark = $1.52) in cuts in unemployment benefits and public work programs in the eastern states. In September, German minister of finance Theo Waigel had to admit that the 1996 deficit in the federal budget will be at least 70 billion marks - 10 billion more than expected.

Although growth increased 1.5 percent in the second quarter in 1996 after two quarters in a row of decline, the German central bank says much of this is due to a construction recovery after a cold winter and is not a sure sign of an upturn.

A September 21 article in Die Welt was headlined "Metal industry employers demand wage freeze." The paper says bosses are demanding there be "no talk about wages this time" and that Christmas and vacation payments be lowered. This spring the public employees unions went on strike when the government demanded similar concessions.

The rulers' offensive is particularly targeting immigrants in an attempt to divide the working class. Since last winter plans to deport thousands of refugees to Bosnia have been outlined by the federal and state governments. The states of Baden, Wurttemberg, Bayern, and Berlin have decided to begin the deportations in October. Christian Social Union representative Jorg Schonbohm explained that if necessary force will be used in Berlin to repatriate them.

On September 17, a chartered plane returned to Hanoi 239 Vietnamese residents in Germany termed illegal. According to an agreement with the Vietnamese government, 40,000 immigrants will be deported back to Vietnam the next few years.  
 
 
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