German unions always start with big first offers. This is just anchoring. Then they settle for less. Last year they also asked for 5 or 6%, we got 2%. In an industry with more than 10% year-on-year growth for the last 5 years that's paltry, especially because there were no raises during the downturn.

The problem with unions isn't the raises. It's rather that it makes people lazy. You need to hire more people not because there's more to do, but because most people are very comfortable in not getting fired. They just wait for retirement.