In the wage conflict in the retail trade, 500 employees in Berlin and Brandenburg stopped working on Thursday.
Verdi accuses employers of “dumping tariff increases”.
Berlin - Around 500 retail workers stopped work on Thursday in Berlin and Brandenburg.
The reason for the warning strikes were the still unsuccessful collective bargaining negotiations with the trade association for the approximately 141,000 Berlin and 78,000 Brandenburg employees in the retail sector, as the service union Verdi announced.
Most of the participants came to a central meeting on Breitscheidplatz in Berlin.
Individual branches of the companies Ikea, Rewe, Kaufland, Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, Edeka, Thalia, H&M, Primark as well as the Rewe warehouse in Mariendorf and the Kaufland warehouse in Lübbenau were affected.
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Verdi lets Ikea workers go on strike
The Verdi union believes that Ikea is blocking wage increases.
She is calling for strikes in several federal states.
Verdi lets Ikea workers go on strike
Fourth round of tariffs in retail ended
The collective bargaining for employees in Baden-Württemberg's retail trade is dragging on.
The Baden-Württemberg trade association and the Verdi union announced on Thursday.
The next and thus fifth round in the ongoing wage dispute is planned for October 20.
Fourth round of tariffs in retail ended
Further no tariff agreement in retail
There is still no sign of an agreement in the tariff conflict for retail and mail order in the southeast.
Negotiations with the Verdi union have been interrupted and are expected to continue on October 4th, as Knut Bernsen from the Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia trade association announced on Monday in Leipzig after the fourth round of negotiations.
Further no tariff agreement in retail
The union is demanding, among other things, a wage increase of 4.5 percent and a minimum wage of 12.50 euros per hour.
"Despite the high inflation rate of currently 3.9 percent, the employers did not submit an improved offer," said Verdi negotiator Conny Weissbach.
She also accuses employers of using the uncertainty associated with the Corona crisis to enforce “dumping tariff increases”.
According to Verdi, the latest tariff proposal of July 30 would allow companies affected by Corona closings to postpone wage increases to the following year.
Accordingly, there would be no increase at all this year.
"It must be borne in mind, however, that not all companies affected by closings can participate in wage increases like others," replied Günter Päts, deputy chief executive of the trade association. For these companies, it will take more zero months before tariff equality can be gradually restored in the next year and the year after that. "Our last offer was closely coordinated with offers from other federal states, but with differentiations for the different companies in Berlin and Brandenburg affected by the corona crisis," said Päts. However, he is optimistic that a solution will be found by the next negotiation date on October 19.
Susanne Ferschl, deputy parliamentary group leader of the Left in the Bundestag, brought political intervention into play. “Since the pandemic at the latest, it has been clear which professions we as a society cannot do without in an emergency. If the employers refuse, the federal government must intervene and use the declaration of general applicability to ensure that the same wage and working conditions are guaranteed in a systemically important industry. "
A deal was already concluded two weeks ago in the Hessian retail sector.
After almost six months of negotiations, Verdi and the employer agreed, according to the union, on a wage increase of 3 percent (retroactive to August 1) and a further 1.7 percent to April 1, 2022. Günter Päts from the trade association of the Berlin-Brandenburg trade association referred to the agreement in Hessen as a "pilot degree".
dpa