Fast food at McDonald’s, Burger King or L’Osteria could be cancelled in the next few days: employees of the catering industry have been called to a warning strike.
The kitchen at McDonald’s, Starbucks or Nordsee could remain cold these days. The Food, Beverages and Catering Union (NGG) has called for warning strikes and protests in the catering industry this week. Representatives of companies such as McDonald’s, Nordsee and Starbucks did not even submit a new offer in the second round of collective bargaining, the NGG criticized last Friday. But the approximately 120,000 employees “expect real relief and significantly more money”.
Employees of McDonald’s, Burger King and Co. demand better wages
“Weekend work, shift work, night work and work on public holidays, and all of this for low wages just above the minimum wage: this is the reality for many employees in the catering industry,” explained NGG negotiator Mark Baumeister. “After the extreme price increases of the last few years, they have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to wages.”
The NGG has rejected the Federal Association of System Catering’s previous offer of a wage increase of €1.26 per hour in the lowest pay group. It is demanding a starting wage of €15 per hour and a gap clause to the minimum wage if this is increased, as well as flat-rate increases of €500 for all employees from the second pay group onwards.
Union secretary calls proposed wage increase “stingy offer”
The union also criticizes the very long term of four years proposed by the employers. “The employers want to pass the business risk on to their employees,” explained Baumeister. The NGG proposes a term of twelve months.
When and where exactly the work will be stopped remains unclear. As the “Hamburger Morgenpost” reports, the industrial action in Hamburg and Elmshorn is planned for today, Friday. “Fast food fans could miss out on the day,” said Sarah Witte, union secretary of the NGG Hamburg-Elmshorn. The union has called on employees in its district to take part in a warning strike from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Witte called the offer to increase the wages of employees in pay group 1 by 1.26 euros over a period of four years a “stingy offer.” It is precisely these lower wage groups that should now be fobbed off with minimal increases, the union secretary continued.
Most recently, employees in the system catering industry went on a warning strike on various days in February 2020 in numerous cities. According to the NGG, these included Dortmund, Siegburg, Munich, Nuremberg, Bremen, Magdeburg and Berlin. At that time, according to the NGG, a total of “several thousand employees across Germany” stopped working, as “Wirtschaftswoche” reports.
Sources: DPA, “”, “”
Source: Stern
