16.Labour's love lost（539）

Passage Sixteen

labour's love lost

劳工不会讲任何情面了

【1】Normally harmonious labour relations are tested like never before，In Germany, where workers and bosses run many companies jointly, a big strike is unusual(uncommon). A wave of big strikes is almost unheard of.

正常和谐的劳工关系受到前所未有的考验，在德国，许多公司由工人和老板连带的经营，因此大规模罢工并不常见。大规模罢工浪潮几乎闻所未闻。

【2】Right now the country of “co-determination(decision)” is simultaneously(meanwhile) facing an eight-day “action week” by irate(angry) farmers, who blocked roads with tractors, a three-day strike of railway workers and, to top it off, a looming strike of doctors, who already closed surgeries between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

如今，这个奉行“共同决策”的国家正同时面临着一场为期八天的“罢工周”。愤怒的农民用拖拉机封锁道路，铁路工人举行了为期三天的罢工，最糟糕的是，医生们也即将罢工，他们在圣诞节至新年期间已经关闭了诊所。

【3】This Mistgabelmop (pitchfork mob), as some have taken to calling it, will test Germany’s harmonious labour relations in the year to come.

有人开始将其称之为“干草叉暴民运动”，这将在未来一年里考验德国和谐劳工关系的稳定性。

【4】The protests were ostensibly(seemingly) set off by the government’s decision to end subsidies(allowances) for diesel fuel used in agriculture and to cut an exemption from car tax for farm vehicles.

表面上看，抗议活动的起因是政府决定取消农业柴油补贴以及削减农用车辆的汽车税减免。

【5】These measures pushed farmers over the edge. It also mobilised other angry workers, already straining under the pressure(stress) of inflation, recession and the government’s self-imposed austerity.

这些措施把农民逼到了绝境，也激怒了其他愤怒的工人，他们已经在通货膨胀、经济衰退和政府自行实施的紧缩政策压力下不堪重负。

【6】On January 9th drivers of freight and passenger trains at Deutsche Bahn, the national railway, began a strike over working hours and pay.

1月9日，德国铁路公司的货运和客运火车司机开始就工作时间和工资问题举行罢工。

【7】In an effort to defuse(ease) the tension(strain) with the farmers, the government agreed to a gradual removal(cancel) of the diesel subsidy over three years and to keeping the exemption from the car tax. The farmers pooh-poohed the concessions as insufficient.

为了缓和与农民之间的紧张关系，政府同意在三年内逐步取消柴油补贴，并保留汽车税豁免政策。农民嗤之以鼻，认为这些让步远远不够。

【8】On January 4th an aggressive group of them prevented(stopped) Robert Habeck, the economy minister, from disembarking from a ferry on his return from a family holiday. If the train drivers are similarly unimpressed, that could prove expensive for German business, reckons(considers) iw Köln, a think-tank.

1月4日，经济部长罗伯特·哈贝克从家里度假回来，一群激进的农民把他堵在了渡轮上。智库科隆经济研究所认为，如果火车司机也如此不满，那么德国企业将付出高昂代价。

【9】The rail strike could cost businesses