For retailers, the weeks before Christmas are the most important of the year, for department stores this is especially true. Ironically, in the middle of the Advent business, strikes are now threatening in the Kaufhof houses. The union Ver.di wants to increase the pressure in the current collective bargaining conflict.
Workers in the department store chain were worried about the imminent merger with former rival Karstadt, said Ver.di negotiator for Kaufhof, Bernhard Franke. Because this threatened the Kaufhof employees significant wage losses.
The unionist linked this with a strike threat. He assumes that it will come to the bargaining planned for December 12 and 13 for Karstadt and Kaufhof to work stoppages, with which the employees wanted to support the positions of Ver.di, said Franke. Earlier, "Stuttgarter Zeitung" and "Stuttgarter Nachrichten" had reported on the possible strikes. A Karstadt spokesman did not comment on the current development.
Also term of the collective agreement controversial
For some time, Ver.di and Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof have been negotiating a joint restructuring agreement for the new department store group created by the merger. According to Ver.di, a merger without a new collective agreement for Kaufhof employees would mean that their pay would automatically drop by eleven percent.
Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof had already proposed a solution in the past that would not be so great for the Kaufhof employees and would even bring more money to Karstadt employees. Ver.di, too, had indicated the willingness to make concessions. Nevertheless, the positions of the two sides are apparently still far from each other. This applies not only to the future wage level, but also to the question of how long a new restructuring collective agreement should apply.
