Updated: 30.09.202020:28
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fromAnnette Schlegl
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shut down
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150 educators in Offenbach respond to Verdi’s call for a warning strike. They claim that there is too little money for too much work for them.
The Offenbach town hall is surrounded by a long human chain on Wednesday morning. In this way, mainly educators from the city day-care centers are protesting for higher salaries and better working conditions. They are following an appeal by the Verdi union, which has called on public service workers to go on a warning strike.
650 teachers work in the 30 municipal day-care centers in Offenbach. Around 150 of them wave Verdi flags in front of the town hall, hold up posters and make noise with rattles before they come together with ribbons to form human chains. A few employees of the city administration and the municipal job center Mainarbeit have mixed with the crowd.
Wage dispute
In the current collective bargaining dispute for 87,000 nationwide employees, Verdi is calling for uniform regulations on issues such as promoting young talent, relief and compensation for overtime and allowances for shift work. In addition, central regulations such as 30 vacation days or special payments are to be standardized nationwide. The union has been calling for a nationwide framework collective agreement to be negotiated since March. The Association of Local Employers’ Associations recently voted against opening negotiations.
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Union Secretary Boris Bogojev is very satisfied with the response to the warning strike. “Because of the emergency service agreement, not all educators could be called to strike,” he says. In most daycare centers, emergency groups were installed that had to be staffed. Some daycare centers completely closed their operations on Wednesday. The parents were informed in letters from parents on Friday.
Some striking teachers openly address the problems in the daycare centers to the FR. The job is very stressful, says one – not only because of the noise level in the daycare rooms. “We have colleagues who have stress disorders such as palpitations, sleep disorders or dizziness. The number of cases of illness is increasing. ”The bureaucracy is increasing: parents’ evenings are poorly attended, so parenting discussions are necessary, which must then be documented. She herself only works in the day care center in the mornings, but is then simply exhausted in the afternoon. Nevertheless, she still has to be there for her own child.
“Children here come to daycare when they are three or four years old, often still wearing diapers, don’t know how to play, have no social skills, hardly any knowledge of German and sometimes also fears,” explains another specialist. Often the educators get stuck, psychologists have to get involved. In Offenbach there are many integration children who mean additional work, says a third educator. “We need more staff,” she says. And a fourth says she has to work until 67 and is already panic. “I will then receive a gross statutory pension of 1045 euros.”
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