After the collective bargaining round in construction failed, arbitration should resolve the deadlocked conflict. The union will call for arbitration and the process could possibly start at the end of next week, a spokesman for IG BAU said on Wednesday.
Strikes are only possible if arbitration is unsuccessful. The union declared the collective bargaining for the approximately 930,000 employees to have failed late on Tuesday evening. “The employers were not prepared to put a negotiable offer on the table,” said Carsten Burckhardt, federal board member and negotiator of the Construction-Agrar-Environment Industrial Union (IG BAU).
The union is demanding 500 euros more wages, salaries and training allowances per month for a period of one year. According to employer calculations, this would correspond to an increase of up to 22.5 percent. The industry associations ZDB and HDB announced that a second offer was presented to the union during the negotiation. This envisaged a wage increase of 3.3 percent for 2024 and 3.2 percent for 2025.
“Twice a little over three percent more income over 24 months simply does not compensate for the immense increase in living costs in recent years and months,” said IG-BAU board member Burckhardt. Things are not going all bad in the construction industry. Civil engineering, infrastructure construction and public construction are on the rise, only the order situation for the construction of single and two-family houses has collapsed.
The employers disagree. “Germany is in a severe construction crisis,” said negotiator Uwe Nostitz, who is also vice president of the Central Association of the German Construction Industry. Many companies in residential construction, the largest construction sector, are struggling with massive declines in orders. “The union completely ignores this reality of the construction industry and continues to stick to its main demand.” Rainer Schlegel, the former President of the Federal Social Court, will once again be the arbitrator for the industry.