MOUNDS OF GARBAGE IN THE streets, stacks of undelivered mail, trains that did not run on time. This is Germany?
Yes, indeed. For 11 days, Germans got an unaccustomed taste of civic disorder, when garbage collectors, transport workers and other public employees walked off their jobs in the longest and most acrimonious strike since the end of World War II. Streets stank, planes didn't fly, traffic snarled. In the end the workers prevailed, forcing the government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl to surrender to a 5.4% pay raise. It was less than the unions wanted but more than Kohl felt Germany could...