Stuttgart/Potsdam (dpa/lsw) - In the collective bargaining dispute for the federal and local public services, the Verdi union in Baden-Württemberg is expanding its warning strikes. "Employees in Pforzheim, Baden-Baden and Rastatt, in the districts of Rems-Murr and Böblingen, in Rottenburg and Tübingen, as well as the clinics in Ehingen and Blaubeuren will start at the beginning of next week," said Verdi on Thursday evening in Stuttgart after nationwide negotiations .
The work stoppages are to be expanded step by step in the coming days and weeks, it said. "All areas of municipal public service will be affected." According to the information provided, the union expects a very high level of participation, since more than 49,700 employees in the country had previously signed their willingness to go on strike.
The employers had submitted an offer during the nationwide negotiations in Potsdam on Thursday, but the unions immediately rejected it. The offer from the federal and local governments includes, among other things, a pay increase of five percent in two steps and one-off payments totaling 2,500 euros.
"No offer would have been better than this declaration of war," explained the Verdi regional manager for Baden-Württemberg, Martin Gross. The employers completely refused a serious and fundamental safeguarding of purchasing power. "Public sector employees suffer every day from the fact that practically everyone has now increased their prices without earning more themselves."
Verdi and the civil servants' association dbb are demanding 10.5 percent more income, but at least 500 euros more per month. The employer side had rejected the demands as "unaffordable". The negotiations concern, among other things, educators, nurses, bus drivers, geriatric nurses, firefighters and garbage workers who are employed by the federal government or in municipalities. A separate collective agreement applies to the employees of the federal states.
