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Beer bottle cleaning in the Becks's brewery in Bremen (2013)
Photo: Carmen Jaspersen / dpa
In the collective bargaining conflict at northern German breweries, the food-gourmet restaurant union (NGG) has called for warning strikes in employees in Bremen, Hamburg, Flensburg and Lübz from Wednesday afternoon.
The labor disputes should last 24 hours, said the NGG.
"The employees did something special under difficult conditions in the pandemic and more than deserved an increase in wages," said the managing director of NGG Bremen-Weser-Elbe, Dieter Nickel.
The employers accused the union of “insufficient understanding of the actual economic situation of the companies”.
24-hour warning strikes after a first or second round of negotiations are "completely disproportionate," said the managing director of the North Brewery Association, Michael Scherer.
He pointed out that the lockdowns in the hotel and catering industry had also hit the brewing industry massively.
The NGG criticizes that, after two rounds of negotiations, the employers offered the companies in the brewing industry in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania a zero percent wage increase and a corona bonus of 500 euros to compensate.
"In the other tariff area of the northern brewing industry, in Bremen, there was no offer at all in the first negotiation," says the message.
Flensburg brewery is also on strike
According to the NGG, employees in the Beck und Co (AB Inbev) brewery in Bremen, in the Carlsberg breweries in Hamburg (Holsten, Astra, Duckstein) and Lübz, and in the Flensburg brewery are called for a warning strike.
The negotiations will continue on June 2nd for the Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania tariff area and on June 4th for the Bremen tariff area.
In the Bremen tariff area, the NGG calls for "an appropriate and appreciative percentage increase in charges" and in the other tariff area an increase in charges of 4.5 percent for a term of 12 months.
sol / dpa