Verdi national chairman Frank Werneke does not rule out a failure of collective bargaining for the public sector at federal and local level. Werneke said at a rally in Schwerin on the occasion of a warning strike by educators that trade unions and employers were far apart in this collective bargaining round.
The next hearing begins on March 27th. “From my point of view, it is completely open whether we will come to a result or whether that is the time when we have to decide whether the negotiations will fail. And then we, as Verdi, will initiate the ballot.”
Verdi and the civil servants’ association dbb are demanding 10.5 percent more salary for federal and municipal employees, but at least an increase of 500 euros. The employer side had rejected this as “unaffordable”.
In several federal states, public sector employees today emphasized their demands with warning strikes. In Chemnitz, for example, all tram lines and important bus lines were canceled. In the capital, the Berliner Stadtreinigung (BSR) and the water company were affected, as Verdi reports. The labor dispute also continued in the state-owned Charité and Vivantes hospitals.
Strikes are to be held again tomorrow – this is likely to affect parents in particular, because on International Women’s Day Verdi is calling on the employees of day care centers and social institutions nationwide to go on warning strikes. “We have been fighting for the upgrading of social work for many years. The work of the educators and social workers must get the recognition it deserves,” said deputy union chairwoman Christine Behle. According to Verdi, 83 percent of employees in social professions are women.
Employers’ organizations are upset
The Association of Municipal Employers’ Associations (VKA) expressed their incomprehension about the strike call. “The fact that daycare facilities are now being hit again shows that the unions are carrying out collective bargaining policies at the expense of parents and young families for the second time in just a few months,” says VKA President Karin Welge. The strike calls do not reflect the course of the negotiations, they are on schedule as originally agreed.
Verdi boss Werneke criticized the offer that the employers had submitted in the second round of negotiations, among other things, for an “incredibly long” term of 27 months. Two small salary steps of 3 percent in October 2023 and 2 percent in April 2024 are offered. Employers ruled out a minimum increase for lower income groups, Werneke criticized. Higher income groups benefited particularly from the offered increase in annual performance. That is antisocial.
