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An unprecedented all-out attack



The collective bargaining round in retail will be one of the hardest this year, says Verdi chairman Frank Bsirske. Precarious employment in the industry is widespread and many employees can hardly survive on their salaries. In addition, employers have launched a general attack on existing working conditions: They announced the unilateral termination of collective bargaining agreements.



In the 2013 round of negotiations initially only the collective wage agreements were for discussion. But now negotiations must cover almost all aspects of working life: reward schemes on overtime, overtime, late, night and Sunday work, leave and holidays. And even the classification of the various professional groups.



Wage-dumping is now called modernisation.



All this would no longer correspond with the realities of the 21st century, says the employers' association HDE. They complain publicly that Verdi was blocking the much needed modernisation of tariff structures. But if you take a closer look at the actions of the HDE you soon come to the conclusion that the employers want only one thing: lower wages.



Verdi also sees the need for modernisation and therefore offered negotiations for a reorganisation to the employers. But Karstadt and Kaufhof blocked this. An approach to a mandatory minimum wage for the industry also failed on the employers' side. They also ended their participation in a joint project on demography and collective bargaining which aimed to secure good working conditions throughout the entire working life. And finally the employers announced the unilateral termination of all collective agreements.



Monopolisation on the backs of workers



The work in the retail world has indeed changed dramatically in recent years. The 30 largest food retailers now dominate 97.5 percent of the total German market - one of the highest levels in Europe. There are more part-time than full-time jobs. Twelve percent of employees work for less than five euros per hour. Stress, extraordinary strains and working hours almost around the clock make up the daily work in the industry. And in this situation, employers want to "exacerbate the destruction of competition in retail at the expense of the staff," says Stefanie Nutzenberger, member of the Verdi Executive Board.



One thing is clear: with Verdi there will be no new collective bargaining agreement under 8.50 euros an hour. Any deterioration of existing provisions of collective bargaining agreements are not accepted. These limits now need to be made clear to the major retail companies - together with the more than three million workers in the industry.



In this situation this means: Resistance is a must!



Strikes have been underway in the German retail industry for some days now.



Video: https://www.verdi.de/verditv?mivstoredata=fe4bc78268YToyOntzOjc6ImNtZF92aWQiO2k6NDk0Nzg5O3M6MTE6ImNtZF9leGVjdXRlIjtpOjE7fQ%2C%2C