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Participants in a Verdi rally by healthcare workers in Berlin (2020)
Photo: Christoph Soeder / dpa
Before the start of collective bargaining in the public sector with the federal states today, Verdi boss Frank Werneke threatened strikes if employers did not respond to the demands of the union.
"The countries should actually know that we are capable of mobilizing," said Werneke to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
The trade unions Ver.di and DBB Beamtenbund and Tarifunion are demanding five percent more wages for the more than 800,000 employees in the federal states without Hesse for a term of twelve months and a minimum amount of 150 euros, among other things because of rising prices for food and fuel.
"Unloading budget restructuring from the employees would be extremely unfair"
Werneke also urged the prime ministers not to be deaf when it comes to the tariff conditions. They had "repeatedly highlighted the performance of public service employees - especially during the pandemic," said Werneke. The chairman of the dbb civil servants' association, Ulrich Silberbach, also called on the federal states to set their priorities for the public service to be more competitive. "After the many hymns of praise last year, it would be extremely unfair to try to unload the budget restructuring from the employees," said Silberbach.
The federal states rejected the demands as illusory.
The chief negotiator, Lower Saxony's finance minister Reinhold Hilbers (CDU), gave the unions little hope of a quick compromise.
The countries wanted to consolidate their budgets, which were strained as a result of the corona crisis, he said.
Structural savings are also necessary for this.
"So there is little room for maneuver."
In addition to the first round of negotiations today in Berlin, further negotiations are planned for November 1st and 2nd and November 26th and 27th.
jso / AFP / dpa
