Zur Zulässigkeit von Sympathiestreiks

In her thesis, Bertke examines whether sympathy strikes, i.e. strikes in which employees are merely supporting third-party interests and not their own, are permitted under German law. According to Bertke, while sympathy strikes are protected against governmental and judicial intervention by the constitutional right of freedom of association, they still, in principle, constitute a violation of the participating trade unions' duty not to engage in industrial action under collective bargaining agreements and of the employees' obligations to work under their employment agreements. According to Bertke, neither the enforcement of these duties by the judiciary nor any non-mandatory statutory law prohibiting sympathy strikes requires constitutional justification with regard to freedom of association. However, sympathy strikes may be protected under future mandatory civil law to the extent that the constitutional duty to protect employees' and trade unions' freedom of association so requires.