Essen.
The Verdi union has called on Ikea employees to go on a two-day warning strike, also this Saturday. These NRW branches are affected.
At the furniture giant Ikea, warning strikes will continue this Saturday at five locations in North Rhine-Westphalia. With the outstanding work in Kamen, Essen, Dortmund, Duisburg and Köln the Verdi union wants to increase the pressure on the company to conclude a collective agreement on future employment in the digital age. “We want the employer to finally come to the negotiating table,” said union secretary Daniela Arndt. The company, on the other hand, is only in favor of a general works agreement. But that’s not enough for Verdi to improve the position of employees and take away their worries.
(Read here: Ikea: Changes planned – is it “Goodbye Köttbullar”?).
There had already been work stoppages on Friday, which sometimes led to longer waiting times in service and at the cash desks. The restaurant in Cologne-Butzweilerhof remained closed and in Cologne-Godorf the children’s corner Småland. According to Ikea, a total of 141 employees took part in the warning strikes – out of a total of 1,733 employees in the five locations concerned. That is about eight percent of the people employed at the five furniture stores. Verdi, on the other hand, estimates that there were more than 200 warning strikers.
Strike at Ikea: controversial issue of digital structural change
Trade unionist Arndt points out that the number of strikers is higher than before. This shows that the topic is becoming increasingly important for employees and that the company should act.
The labor dispute is not about money, but about guidelines for future employment. Verdi is calling for a new collective agreement to improve the position of employees in digital structural change. That should take care of it.
Strike at Ikea: Verdi demands higher health protection
In view of the increased workload for employees, Verdi is demanding, among other things, measures to protect against overload, higher health protection and a right to qualification when changing jobs (also interesting: Ikea is increasing prices significantly: Billy, Pax and Malm cost so much more).
Recently, the number of customers has increased significantly, but staff has not been expanded to the same extent, criticized Verdi (read here: Ikea: These 7 design classics are worth a fortune today).
Strike at Ikea: employees in Berlin went on strike on Wednesday
On Wednesday, the employees of all Berlin Ikea locations were called to a day-long strike. Here, too, it was about the demand to start negotiations on a digitization collective agreement. (afp/dpa)
More articles from this category can be found here: Rhine and Ruhr
