Collective Bargaining for Retail and Mail Order in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia: Unsuccessful Negotiations Recap

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Collective bargaining for retail and mail order again unsuccessful

Yesterday, 04.07.2023 | 18:35

Collective bargaining for retail and mail order again unsuccessful

Tuesday, July 4, 6:31 p.m.: Collective bargaining for retail and mail order in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia is entering the next round. The second round of negotiations also remained unsuccessful, as Verdi negotiator Torsten Furgol announced on Tuesday on request. There were no overtures on the part of the employer. Furgol described the result as “a slap in the face to the workers”.

Among other things, Verdi is calling for an increase in wages of 2.50 euros per hour in the collective bargaining. In addition, the training allowances are to be increased by 250 euros per month. Employers offer three percent more wages with the conclusion of the collective agreement and two percent more at the beginning of the second year of the wage agreement.

The next negotiations are scheduled to take place in Magdeburg on July 18. Until then, Verdi announced further warning strikes. The collective agreement on salaries, wages and training allowances for around 270,000 employees in retail and mail order in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia was terminated in January on May 31, 2023.

The employer side criticized that Verdi would not have been willing to enter into a constructive and solution-oriented exchange of content. In the employers’ understanding, collective bargaining cannot be limited to stubbornly rejecting reasonable offers as insufficient, demanding improved offers and going on strike.

No strike for the time being: Lufthansa and pilots continue to talk

Monday, July 3, 2:57 p.m.: At Lufthansa, there is no threat of a new pilot strike for the time being. Despite the end of the peace obligation last Friday, companies and the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union (VC) continued their collective bargaining on Monday. Both sides confirmed this in Frankfurt. However, they did not provide any information on the status of the negotiations or on further scheduling.

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If the talks fail, warning strikes have been just as conceivable since July 1 as the initiation of a ballot on indefinite strikes. Most recently, the Lufthansa pilots paralyzed flight operations with a warning strike on September 2, 2022. More than 800 flights with around 130,000 affected passengers were canceled.

The salaries and working conditions of around 5,200 pilots of the core company Lufthansa and the freight subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo are being negotiated. In September, both sides agreed on an interim solution with a flat-rate salary increase in order to have more time for fundamental questions, which have remained unanswered.

The VC is now demanding 8.5 percent more money for a term of one year. In addition, she wants to change numerous regulations on length of service and standby and standardize the salary structure. The union rejected the company’s latest offer as insufficient. It extends the required 8.5 percent to 30 months and does not go into numerous detailed requirements.

Warning strike plans canceled – rail union agrees to arbitration

Friday, June 30, 7:10 a.m.: Further warning strikes on the rails are off the table for the time being: In the deadlocked wage dispute at Deutsche Bahn, employers and unions want to try to find a solution with external mediation. “After the failure of the negotiations, we declared that we would not oppose such a procedure – now we are keeping our word,” said EVG negotiator Kristian Loroch on Thursday with a view to the arbitration procedure proposed by Deutsche Bahn.

Actually, the union board wanted to decide on the next industrial action this Thursday. These plans have now been canceled for the time being, it said. However, the railway and transport union (EVG) still wants its members to decide on indefinite strikes in a ballot.

TÜV goes on warning strike lasting several days

Thursday, June 29, 09:00: The Verdi union wants to put pressure on the ongoing collective bargaining with warning strikes lasting several days by the employees of Tüv Nord, Tüv Hessen and the Society for Plant and Reactor Safety. The day-long campaigns planned until Tuesday started on Thursday. A high participation is expected, said a union spokesman in the morning. According to Verdi, the locations in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Hesse and Saarland.

“The employees expect a timely resumption of the negotiations and a final offer,” said Verdi negotiator Peter Bremme in Hamburg. Verdi is demanding twelve percent more remuneration retrospectively to April 1, 2023 with a term of twelve months.

After the last round of negotiations on May 30, more than 3,100 employees took part in a survey and the majority rejected the outcome of the negotiations up to that point. Verdi’s request to submit an offer that could be concluded was reportedly followed by an invitation from the employers to talk about arbitration. Verdi rejected that.

The union Tüv Bund consists of the companies Tüv Nord, Tüv Hessen and the Society for Plant and Reactor Safety (GRS) with around 7000 employees in Germany. For example, they carry out driver’s license tests and general vehicle inspections, are responsible for the safety of castor loads or deal with cyber security. Among other things, they inspect the HHLA container gantries at the Port of Hamburg.

According to Bremme, TÜV Hanse is also active in the Hamburg city area. But it belongs to a different tariff area and is therefore not affected by the warning strike.

EVG wants to decide on warning strikes at board meeting

6.50 p.m.: The railway and transport union (EVG) wants to decide on further warning strikes in the collective bargaining conflict with Deutsche Bahn this Thursday. A board meeting is scheduled, “in which strike targets will be re-determined,” according to trade union circles. The extent to which an arbitration proposal by Deutsche Bahn will influence this decision was initially open on Wednesday. In the deadlocked collective bargaining dispute, the state-owned group had suggested to the EVG that external mediators be called in to find a solution and avert further strikes. The union has not yet responded. The negotiations, which have been ongoing since February, failed last week.

Railway union announces new strike

Wednesday, June 28, 2:21 p.m.: The railway union EVG probably wants to do this again next Tuesday Deutsche Bahn strike. “Image” wants to have learned this from railway circles. In addition to the ICE and IC, regional trains and freight trains should also be affected – in the middle of the summer holidays. More about this here.

Pilots continue in collective bargaining at Lufthansa

Tuesday, June 27, 9:17 a.m.: A few days before the end of the peace obligation, the collective bargaining between Lufthansa and its 5,200 regular pilots continues. Talks are still ongoing, but nothing can be said about the details, both sides said on Tuesday when asked.

The peace obligation of the previous agreement ends on Friday, so that strikes are theoretically possible during the peak travel season from July. According to a spokesman, the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union has not yet decided how to proceed, especially since the talks have not yet been completed.

In the event of failure, warning strikes are conceivable, as is the initiation of a strike ballot on indefinite strikes. Most recently, the Lufthansa pilots paralyzed flight operations with a warning strike on September 2, 2022. More than 800 flights with around 130,000 affected passengers were canceled.

The salaries and working conditions of around 5,200 pilots of the core company Lufthansa and the freight subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo are being negotiated. In September, both sides agreed on an interim solution to give them more time to resolve fundamental issues, but this never happened. The interim solution contained two flat-rate salary increases of EUR 490 per month, which according to Lufthansa meant increases of between 5.5 and 20 percent.

The VC is now demanding 8.5 percent more money for a term of one year. In addition, she wants to change numerous regulations on length of service and standby and standardize the salary structure. The union rejected the company’s latest offer as insufficient. It extends the required 8.5 percent to 30 months and does not go into numerous detailed requirements.

In the background, the fundamental dispute over the size of the core company continues to smolder. Months ago, CEO Carsten Spohr indicated his willingness to revive a fleet commitment of 325 aircraft that had been canceled in the meantime. These could then only be flown by pilots who are employed under the VC tariff.

For years, VC has opposed Lufthansa’s efforts to shift transport services and thus jobs to cheaper flight operations. Lufthansa has founded the new company City Airlines in Munich, which could take over short and medium-sized feeder flights to the Munich hub from 2024.

Survey: Every second person has no understanding for longer train strikes

1:15 p.m.: Possible longer strikes in rail traffic in August are met with rejection by many people in Germany. 25 percent have no understanding at all, according to a YouGov survey commissioned by the German Press Agency. 24 percent have no understanding.

Collective bargaining with Deutsche Bahn failed this week. The railway and transport union (EVG) is now having its members vote on indefinite strikes in a ballot.

Many people can understand that too. 17 percent of those surveyed understand that the union is willing to accept longer strikes. 25 percent said they were more understanding.

The union estimates four to five weeks until the ballot is completed. If enough members agree, indefinite strikes from the end of July are conceivable.

The labor dispute would affect millions of people in Germany. According to the YouGov survey, 13 percent would be affected because they regularly travel by train, for example to get to work. Another 11 percent would be affected because they planned train journeys in August. On the other hand, every second respondent does not intend to take the train that month.

At Deutsche Bahn, there have been two EVG warning strikes in the current collective bargaining round, and a third at some competing companies. Warning strikes are also possible in the coming weeks, as the union announced on Thursday.

According to the survey, the prospect of an indefinite strike is already having an impact on the travel plans of those who expect to be affected. Every tenth person affected wants to forgo their trip, and around every eighth person wants to postpone the trip. Almost every third wants to switch to other means of transport. Also one in three is not changing their travel plans yet.

More information on the warning strikes on the following pages.

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