After the collapse of collective bargaining in the construction industry, there is now a strike. It starts in Lower Saxony, and there will be work stoppages nationwide on Tuesday.
The first construction strike in 17 years has begun. More than 1,000 construction workers stopped work at the start of the nationwide wave of warning strikes in Lower Saxony, as the IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt announced.
According to the union, 300 came to the central rally in Osnabrück, another 150 to a smaller one in Langenhagen near Hanover. The strike is to be continued on Tuesday and expanded to other regions. IG BAU announced that there would then be selective actions throughout Germany.
Arbitration brought no solution
The background is the collective bargaining agreement in the construction industry with 930,000 employees that collapsed at the beginning of May. After three unsuccessful rounds of negotiations, the arbitrator Rainer Schlegel proposed two-stage wage increases on April 19th. Initially, incomes should increase by a flat rate of 250 euros in May and eleven months later by another four percent. While IG BAU accepted the compromise proposal, the employers’ associations rejected it at the beginning of May. There is now a strike again for the original demand of 500 euros more per month.
Lower Saxony was chosen to start the nationwide strike because the employers there, along with some other regions, prevented the arbitrator’s decision from being implemented, according to the union. The last time there was a strike in construction was in 2007, at that time regionally limited to Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. The last time there was a nationwide strike in construction was in 2002.
Construction industry hopes for a quick agreement
“The strikes will lead to construction delays and thus cause economic damage,” said Uwe Nostitz, negotiator for employers and vice president of the Central Association of the German Construction Industry (ZDB). “Especially now, in difficult economic times, especially in housing construction, strike action comes at an inopportune time.” A negotiated solution must now be found quickly.
The Lower Saxony Construction Industry Association said its member companies were prepared for industrial action. “There will certainly be disruptions caused by the strike, but we hope and appeal to the striking employees that they will exercise good judgment,” said a spokeswoman. However, it is difficult to make predictions about possible impairment. “We assume that there will only be a short-term delay on the construction sites due to the strike.”
Rejection divides employers’ camps
There was also criticism of the failure of the arbitration within the employers’ associations. According to the Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Construction Industry Association, the construction industry associations accepted the arbitrator’s decision in all federal states. He failed because of the construction industry associations. In the collective bargaining round, the construction industry and the construction trade form a collective bargaining community.
Employers now want to voluntarily increase employees’ wages. The Main Association of the German Construction Industry (HDB) and the ZDB suggested increasing five percent in the west and six percent in the east. The proposal is above their offer in collective bargaining.
Source: Stern
