There's a widespread cliché of German society working like a well-oiled machine. Foreigners expect trains to run on time and public spaces to be neat and tidy. That's more the case in Switzerland than in its big neighbor to the north, but compared to a lot of other countries, Germany is still a fairly punctual and orderly place. Or at least it normally is.

Starting this week, striking public sector workers -- everyone from garbage men to kindergarten employees -- are taking to the picket lines in 10 German states. It is the biggest public sector strike in 14 years. The expansion of the labor unrest comes on the heels of union action in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg to protest plans to raise the number of hours worked each week. Service sector trade union Verdi has coordinated the strike in an attempt to torpedo plans to force municipal employees to work 40 hours a week instead of the current 38.5 hours without compensation. While the state and local governments point to their empty coffers and explain that it would amount to only 18 minutes of extra work a day, union officials claim a quarter of a million jobs could be threatened by extending working hours.

Verdi chairman Frank Bsirske warned on Monday that the union had enough cash to keep the picket lines going for weeks. It has the makings of a nasty labor dispute, and unfortunately for Germany's fragile economic recovery, the public sector isn't the only place grappling with possible job cuts and a row over working hours. Germany's biggest carmaker, Volkswagen, recently announced that it too was looking to increase working hours without compensation for thousands of its employees. Presently, some 100,000 workers put in only 28.8 hours a week. VW wants them to clock 35 hours for the same wages. So is Germany losing its long-held status as a worker's paradise? The country's press on Monday looks at what it all means.

The right-wing newspaper Die Welt argues that Germany's unions are falling back into outdated roles of defending their members' interests without regard to increasing economic globalization. "The question of 18 minutes more per day isn't even being asked for many workers outside the public sector. For them it's more important whether they still have a job at all," opines the daily. While admitting the trade unions have to defend the interests of their members, Die Welt believes globalization means they are fighting battles they cannot win. Instead of simply using the current lousy mood in Germany to mobilize people to strike, the country's unions need to develop strategies that are based on the new economic and societal realities globalization is confronting them with. "Then doing with less could maybe become a sort of fitness training that helps make this land better able to compete internationally."

Germany's most-read daily paper, Bild, isn't afraid to show its populist and conservative leanings in an interview with Verdi boss Bsirske. Next to a photo of a squinty-eyed, grinning picture of the union leader, Bild headlines its coverage: "What's with this rubbish, Mr. Bsirske?" As the scope of the strike expands, the paper asks questions that many Germans likely have on their minds: How can the union oppose longer working hours when five million Germans are currently unemployed? The country is going through tough times, shouldn't municipal workers do their share? And why is the union taking to the picket lines at the expense of average citizens as garbage piles up and hospitals are shut down? Bsirske does his best to counter those concerns but comes up mostly with standard organized labor responses: "In order to limit the consequences for the public, there are emergency services in clinics and childcare centers. But when there's a strike, many people notice how important the public sector services are."

The business daily Handelsblatt looks at the anger simmering among public sector union members in its coverage of the strike. And the possibility of growing mountains of trash is a common theme: "Anger and Garbage" is the title of an article exploring the mindset of union members in the northwestern German town of Osnabrück. "The strike coffers will last for half a year," the paper quotes a Verdi representative as saying. But will the German public support, or rather tolerate, striking public sector workers for that long? Especially when other workers are being asked to work longer too? In the same edition, Handelsblatt devotes considerable space to Volkswagen's plans to increase the work week for thousands of employees. The paper points out that VW has always had a leading role in German labor relations and it's hard to find a company where trade union influence is stronger. But increasing competition means there's little alternative to longer hours. "VW can no longer afford the luxury of the four-day week. That's why the board wants to increase the workweek to 35 hours without extra pay," writes the paper. Similar to the public sector labor dispute where many eastern German municipal employees already work over 40 hours a week, Handelsblatt points out that a big chunk of VW workers already clock a 42-hour workweek.

The left-wing Berliner Zeitung also looks at the labor troubles surrounding both the public sector and VW. While the fronts appear to be hardening in the pubic sector dispute, the paper sees little alternative to longer hours at VW. "Of course it's hard for an employee to work an extra seven hours a week without seeing an extra cent," the paper writes in a commentary. "But as bitter as it seems for VW workers, compared to the restructuring plans of some companies, what they face is still relatively comfortable." The daily opines that many workers in other sectors would be happy to have a cushy 35-hour workweek.