Strike during Austria’s European Championship appearance: “Work must not make people poor”

Because of the stalled negotiations on a new collective agreement for bicycle couriers, the food delivery workers went on strike yesterday evening between 5:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., i.e. during the European Championship soccer match between Austria and France. Vienna, Graz, Salzburg and Klagenfurt were affected. In Vienna, 200 couriers took part, said vida regional chairman Helmut Gruber in the evening. The strike meeting in Vienna had to be moved to a local pub because the companies on strike had banned the meetings.

The union is demanding a wage increase of 8.7 percent, while the employers’ offer was recently 5.8 percent. “When we demand compensation for cost of living, we are not talking about luxury. We are talking about the fact that work must not make people poor,” says Markus Petritsch, vida chairman of the road department. The monthly wage according to the collective agreement is 1,730 euros gross.

Negotiations have been going on for months, and there are repeated strikes. However, many bicycle couriers are not covered by the collective agreement because they are freelancers or self-employed. There are 4,500 bicycle couriers in Austria, and a good 2,000 are employed under the collective agreement. The delivery service Lieferando employs employees under the collective agreement, while its competitor Foodora mainly employs freelancers. Foodora and Lieferando stated that they do not expect any significant restrictions on food delivery. A wage increase of 8.7 percent is not economically viable, according to a Lieferando spokesperson: “Customers would not accept the price increases that would be required.”

Strikes in the logistics sector soon?

Even in collective bargaining negotiations for the 25,000 workers in the forwarding and warehousing companies, there has been no agreement after four rounds. Last week, vida stepped up its stance and applied to the ÖGB for permission to strike.