Strike Bike Co-Op (2007) On this day in 2007, bike factory workers who were occupying their workplace in Nordhausen, Germany announced their plan to begin producing a limited edition "Strike...
Strike Bike Co-Op (2007) On this day in 2007, bike factory workers who were occupying their workplace in Nordhausen, Germany announced their plan to begin producing a limited edition "Strike...
Strike Bike Co-Op (2007)
Fri Sep 21, 2007
Image: A photo of "Das StrikeBike"
On this day in 2007, bike factory workers who were occupying their workplace in Nordhausen, Germany announced their plan to begin producing a limited edition "Strike Bike", bought as a pre-order to help initiate production.
When a bike factory's closing was announced in Nordhausen, Germany, striking workers there occupied the factory in protest in July 2007. Although the owners of the factory attempted to evict the workers, courts ruled in favor of the workers when they claimed that they were simply holding a lengthy staff meeting.
When news of the occupation spread, some leftists traveled to Nordhausen and suggested beginning worker-managed production of bicycles. Although the striking workers were skeptical initially, this suggestion was eventually adopted.
On September 21st, 2007, striking workers announced their plan to begin producing a limited edition "Strike Bike". Bought as a pre-order to help initiate production, the Strike Bike quickly sold out and production was set to begin on October 22nd.
- Date: 2007-09-21
- Learn More: www.workerscontrol.net, libcom.org.
- Tags: #Labor.
- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org
Interesting story. I was at first confused about what the workers hoped to achieve by going on strike at a factory that was being shuttered anyway. Apparently Germany has laws about compensating employees when a business closes which the owners were basically ignoring. The strike started out as an attempt to get their due compensation for the shutdown, and the idea to restart production came later. The plan was to make 2000 bikes if they could sell at least 1800 preorders to finance purchasing the materials. The most recent information I found was that all 2000 preorders had sold out and they were planning to start production, but there don't seem to be any English language articles published after that point. Maybe someone who speaks German can find more information about how things played out.