The wave of strikes in the public sector continues: on Thursday and Friday it will hit the garbage disposal in Mainz. The Ver.di trade union announced on Wednesday that the employees of the waste disposal company in the city of Mainz were called on to go on warning strikes on these two days. This means that cleaning workers, street cleaners and garbage workers will go on strike, and the Mainz-Bingen district is also affected. On Thursday there will also be a strike in the day-care centers – there is also a risk of a strike at the University Hospital in Mainz.
Since the beginning of March, the Ver.di services union has been sweeping the republic with one strike wave after the next, and just recently there was practically nothing going on in local public transport for two days. Despite ongoing negotiations and offers from employers, Ver.di feels compelled to continue to exert considerable pressure – on Thursday and Friday it will now be the garbage disposal in Mainz and in the Mainz-Bingen district.
Garbage workers and cleaning staff, as well as street cleaning, were called to walk out, Ver.di said on Wednesday at short notice: “Due to the strike, there will be major failures in garbage collection in Mainz and in the Mainz-Bingen district, as well as in street cleaning in the Mainz city area.” The union emphasizes that many employees in waste disposal companies are grouped into the three lowest pay groups of the collective agreement for the public sector: the continuing rise in the cost of living is particularly painful for them.
Union demands 10.5 percent more wages
“The employees of the disposal company do hard work every day, and they want to be paid fairly for this,” said Fabian Gödeke, deputy managing director in the Ver.di district of Mittelrhein. The demand for a minimum increase in the monthly table fees of 500 euros is therefore particularly important here. In the ongoing collective bargaining dispute, the union is demanding 10.5 percent more salary for federal and local employees, but at least 500 euros more per month for a period of twelve months.
The employer side considers this to be simply unaffordable and has meanwhile made an offer of five percent in two steps as well as a tax-free one-off payment of 2,500 euros. The third round of negotiations is scheduled for March 27-29, 2023 in Potsdam. Ver.di conducts collective bargaining jointly for the police union, IG BAU, and the education and science union – and they called for a strike in the daycare centers on Thursday.
“On the day of the warning strike, we will make it clear that employees in the social and educational professions now expect a degree that recognizes their professional commitment and at the same time seriously recognizes the role of work in day-care centers for our society,” emphasized Kathrin Gröning, Deputy State Chair of the GEW in Rhineland-Palatinate, in advance. Around 1,000 educators are therefore expected to attend a demo in Kirchheim-Bolanden this Thursday.
Strike on Thursday at daycare centers, strike in university clinic threatened
A strike focus on Thursday is also at daycare centers, schools and public transport 9 in the West Palatinate, on Friday it will hit the Ludwigshafen region. And in Mainz, too, the next strike is imminent: On Tuesday, the union and employers met for the first round of negotiations at the university medical center in Mainz, but they could not agree: the employers had not submitted an offer, Ver.di complained afterwards.
The union is also demanding hefty wage increases here, including an increase in the monthly basic salary for all full-time employees by 550 euros, a collective agreement on a lifetime work account, an increase in the surcharge for night work from 25 percent to 40 percent and the adoption of the 49-euro ticket exclusively for all ver.di members at the university medicine. Now Ver.di is threatening to go on strike here too: The second round of negotiations is scheduled for April 12, 2023 – now “strike measures could come before that.”
Info& on Mainz&: You can read more about the major strike on buses and trains in the past few days and the demands of the union here at Mainz&.
