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Daycare educators during a warning strike in Lower Saxony (March 2022): "The state must skim off extra profits"
Photo: Julian Stratenschulte / dpa
In view of the war in Ukraine, Verdi boss Frank Werneke is demanding that extremely wealthy private individuals and successful companies should make a greater financial contribution to dealing with the consequences.
»Those who are not made poorer by the Ukraine war must make an appropriate contribution to financing the common good.
I'm thinking here of the oil and armaments companies that can hardly walk because of the money," Werneke told the "Augsburger Allgemeine".
“The state has to skim off these extra profits.” Wealthy private individuals should also be consulted.
"According to our plan, private individuals with assets of two million euros and entrepreneurs with assets of five million euros or more would be obliged to make a solidarity payment," said Werneke.
This equalization of burdens, which similarly existed after the Second World War, is intended as a one-off payment that should be paid off over twenty years in annual installments of 0.5 to 1.5 percent of the assets.
At the same time, the state must increase new debt, Werneke demanded in the newspaper.
In the run-up to this year's Labor Day on Sunday, the trade unions also reiterated their demand for significantly higher wages in this year's collective bargaining.
It is a question of enforcing compensation for the high inflation, said the chairman of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), Reiner Hoffmann.
IG Metall chairman Jörg Hofmann said that after two years of restraint because of the pandemic, "our members expect a strong increase in wages".
Under the current conditions, that will be much more demanding, DGB boss Hoffmann admitted.
"But I don't understand how Gesamtmetall President Stefan Wolf can say that now is no time for wage increases when increasing dividends are being decided at the general meetings of the corporations."
However, IG Metall boss Jörg Hofmann also warned against expectations that were too high: “The adjustment for inflation cannot be a matter for the trade unions alone.” The state is also called upon here, which must ensure that the high energy prices can be borne by employees through relief .
Verdi boss Werneke called wage agreements of five or six percent a realistic goal: “That is our claim.
We are aiming for percentage marks like this.” The union wants to implement them this year at Telekom, next year at the post office or in the public sector.
Yasmin Fahimi, the DGB chairman-designate, rejected warnings that high collective bargaining agreements could further fuel inflation.
"The tale of the wage-price spiral is nothing other than an attempt to pass on inflation and crisis management to the masses of consumers," she said.
Depending on the industry, there are still increases in productivity.
»These should also be passed on to the employees.«
The DGB federal congress is to elect the SPD member of parliament on May 9 as the new chairman of the trade union umbrella organization.
The 66-year-old Hoffmann is retiring.
lov/AFP/dpa