With warning strikes and actions at 50 universities nationwide – including Augsburg, Erlangen and Munich – employees demanded better pay on Monday. In the collective bargaining dispute for state employees, the Verdi union is demanding a 10.5 percent salary increase, but at least 500 euros more per month. In addition, a nationwide collective agreement for assistants at universities should be implemented.
The union has called on trainees to hold a “youth strike day” on Tuesday. On Thursday and Friday, employees of the university clinics in Munich, Augsburg, Regensburg, Erlangen and Würzburg are to go on temporary strike, as are employees of their service providers.
Verdi regional department manager Robert Hinke said: “The fact that savings are made at the expense of personnel is particularly evident in outsourced service areas.” It’s not equipment that’s missing, but staff – the staff is “increasingly running away,” said Martin Schmalzbauer, Verdi’s specialist secretary for the university hospitals in Bavaria.
The third round of negotiations begins on December 7th in Potsdam. The Bavarian Civil Service Association (BBB) is demanding that the collective bargaining agreement be adopted for civil servants. BBB boss Rainer Nachtigall said on Monday: “We need competitive employment conditions.” The states have rejected the demands as unaffordable.