Wave of promotions starts at Edeka
Verdi strikes retail on Friday
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For eight months, the collective bargaining parties in the retail sector have been treading water. Verdi has announced nationwide strikes until Easter, which are intended to specifically target those blocking the negotiations. On Friday it is Edeka's turn. Other chains are expected to follow.
As a foretaste of further major strikes before Easter, the service union Verdi has called on retail workers to strike nationwide tomorrow, Friday. The aim is to persuade employers to return to the negotiating table and conclude a collective agreement. The union announced this. Talks between the collective bargaining partners in retail have now been going on for more than eight months without any results.
The industrial action on Friday is only the beginning of several central action weeks before Easter. “We want to specifically focus on the blockers in the employer camp,” explained Silke Zimmer from the Verdi federal board. Actions are planned this week in branches and warehouses of the food retailer Edeka. In the coming weeks, the focus will then be on other retail groups that, according to Verdi, are blocking the negotiations. The union expects around 13,000 strikers nationwide on Friday. Central rallies are to take place in Cologne, Chemnitz, Hamburg and Minden, among other places.
Employers reject 15 percent increase
Verdi is demanding a wage increase of €2.50 per hour for employees in the retail sector; for lower-level groups of employees, an increase in hourly wages to €13.50 over a period of twelve months. According to the German Retail Association (HDE), i.e. the employers' representatives, this would correspond to a wage increase of 15 percent. For their part, the employers are offering wage increases of around ten percent over a period of two years and an inflation compensation premium of €750.
According to Silke Zimmer, the employers' offers were “not even remotely sufficient to compensate for the real wage losses of recent years”. The offers that have been made to employees in wholesale and foreign trade so far also “fell far short of the demands of the collective bargaining committees”.
