Warning strikes at Ikea – Verdi wants new collective agreement
Saturday April 15, 2023 5:33 p.m.: At the furniture store chain Ikea, warning strikes on Friday led to impairments at some locations in North Rhine-Westphalia. In Cologne-Butzweilerhof, for example, the restaurant remained closed and in Cologne-Godorf the children’s corner Småland, the company said at the request of the German Press Agency. Customers sometimes had to put up with longer waiting times.
There were also strikes at Ikea in Duisburg, Essen and Dortmund. According to Ikea, 1,733 people are employed at the five furniture stores, and 141 stopped work on Friday. The Verdi union, on the other hand, spoke of over 200 warning strike participants.
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.
For example, the union is demanding better qualifications for staff. “Long-term good and healthy work should be a matter of course for a modern company like Ikea,” said Silke Zimmer, head of the Verdi department. “We will not accept that Ikea refuses to protect its employees through such a collective agreement.”
The company said they had a common goal: “maximum job security through the further development of our business and the qualification of our employees for a successful future at Ikea in Germany”. They want to conclude a general works agreement with the works councils “that gives everyone involved security about how we can shape our further development together”. From Verdi’s point of view, however, such an agreement is not enough.
The trade unionist Daniela Arndt rated the day of the warning strike as a “complete success” – also because the number of participants was higher than before. “You can see that the topic is getting through to people.” The trade unionist Reiner Kajewski emphasized that the workforce was in no way opposed to the increased use of new technologies. “But we want to help shape their use in the interests of the employees.” In the future, personnel planning should not only be left to artificial intelligence (AI), but the workforce must have a say in this. The Ikea warning strikes are expected to continue on Saturday.
Employees demonstrate in front of the Galeria branch in Hanover
06:46: Around 50 employees of the insolvent retail chain Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof protested in Hanover against the company’s tough restructuring course. “The management didn’t do their job. There is no forward-looking concept, only mass layoffs and branch closures,” criticized the Verdi union. According to them, a large part of the workforce scheduled for Thursday in the Ernst-August-Platz branch took part in a warning strike. “Management had to sit at the checkout themselves,” said union secretary Christian Vasenthien. A total of around 210 people work in shifts in the branch.
Among other things, Verdi criticizes the fact that employees have waived part of their wages since 2019 without the department stores having been made future-proof during this time. According to the union, the employees are entitled to full salaries again because of the termination of the restructuring collective agreement. The company has a different legal opinion on this.
The union emphasized that the dispute is about thousands of jobs nationwide, but also about the future of inner cities. Galeria employees had already protested in several federal states in the past few days.
150 employees of the SRH-Klinikum Suhl im warning strike
Friday 14 April 06:44: In the collective bargaining dispute at the private hospital operator SRH, employees at the central clinic in Suhl went on a all-day warning strike on Thursday. According to the Verdi union, around 150 strikers gathered in the morning on the lower market, from where they wanted to set off for a demonstration through the city. According to a union spokeswoman, patient care is secured via an emergency service agreement.
Verdi demands 10.5 percent more money, but at least 500 euros, for the non-medical staff in 13 SRH clinics and rehabilitation facilities nationwide, to which the group collective agreement applies.
According to the union, in addition to nurses, physiotherapists and administrative staff, trainees also took part in the warning strike. Verdi is demanding 200 euros more per month for them in the ongoing negotiations with employers. The union justifies this with the inflation and the already difficult conditions for the hospital staff. “Without better pay, it will become increasingly difficult to attract and retain qualified staff.”
The Waldklinikum Gera in Thuringia also falls under the SRH Group collective agreement. The union reserves the right to call the non-medical workforce to strike there, too, said the Verdi spokeswoman. The next round of negotiations is scheduled for April 20th. The collective bargaining conflict affects 8,200 employees nationwide. The group had accused the union of a lack of willingness to compromise after the previous four rounds of negotiations.
Collective bargaining talks in retail start in the southwest
Thursday, April 13, 2023. 07:01: The positions for the collective bargaining for the 490,000 employees in Baden-Württemberg’s retail trade have been fixed: the Verdi union wants 15 percent more money – and the Baden-Württemberg trade association rejects the demand as excessive. Now the collective bargaining parties will start their negotiations on Thursday (10.30 a.m.) in Stuttgart. This heralds the round of collective bargaining in the retail sector nationwide. Tariff talks are traditionally held regionally.
The general manager of the trade association, Sabine Hagmann, said: “In view of the general economic situation and especially the difficult situation in retail, we are assuming the toughest collective bargaining for a long time.” The many insolvencies of large trading companies showed how precarious the situation in retail is. “It will be important that employees also take responsibility in view of the current situation in order to ensure the survival of stationary retail,” said Hagmann.
Verdi negotiator Wolfgang Krüger doesn’t want to hear anything about wage restraint. “The retail companies were able to relieve themselves of increased costs by raising their prices.” Now it is time to give employees who have been exposed to extreme inflation for more than a year strong wage increases: “This works best with spreadsheets Increases because they are sustainable and contribute to adequate old-age pensions in old age.”
The talks are likely to be tough, and the first warning strikes could soon follow. According to collective bargaining experts, it is particularly difficult for the union to put pressure on employers in the retail trade. It is said that the level of organization is lower than in other sectors. This is also due to the fact that many part-time employees are particularly difficult to organize in many companies.
The longest bargaining round in recent years in the retail sector ended in Baden-Württemberg in 2008 – it took 18 months before a solution was reached at the negotiating table. At that time, the talks were accompanied by numerous strike actions.
You can read more information about the warning strikes on the following pages.
