The second round of collective bargaining in the public sector for state employees remained inconclusive. Now the unions are calling for warning strikes.
In the collective bargaining for the public sector in the federal states, the unions want to call for massive warning strikes. The ver.di union announced this after the second round of negotiations.
“The employers did not submit any offers in the second round either and flatly rejected all essential demands and expectations,” said ver.di boss Frank Werneke. “We will therefore massively expand the warning strikes in the period before the next round.”
“We will now have to increase the pressure on the streets so that employers see how serious the situation of employees in the federal states is,” added the federal head of the German Civil Service Association, Ulrich Silberbach. Ver.di and the Civil Service Association initially want to discuss the start of warning strikes.
Wage increase of 10.5 percent demanded
The unions are demanding a wage increase of 10.5 percent, or at least 500 euros more per month, for what they say are around 1.1 million collective bargaining employees. Around 1.4 million civil servants are also affected, to whom the result is usually transferred. Young talent should receive 200 euros more. The tariff period should be twelve months.
For Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen, the unions are demanding a monthly city-state allowance of 300 euros. The demands are linked to the collective bargaining agreement from April of this year for the federal and local governments.
Countries consider demands to be far too high
The Collective Bargaining Association of German States (TdL) had made it clear that it considered the demands to be far too high and unaffordable. The TdL negotiator, Hamburg’s Finance Senator Andreas Dressel, said: “We had very intensive but very difficult discussions given the general conditions.”
Before the Prime Minister’s Conference on Monday, at which important decisions for the state finances are expected, the states are “in a very difficult budgetary situation,” said Dressel. But he is optimistic that an agreement can be reached by Christmas. Negotiations will continue in early December.
Negotiations are taking place for teachers at schools, teachers at universities as well as nurses and doctors at university hospitals. The penal system and justice system are just as affected as the daycare centers in Berlin. Hesse is not affected because the state is not in the collective bargaining community of German states with which ver.di and the civil service association dbb sit at the table.