Essen (dpa / lnw) - In the struggle for better working conditions that has been going on for months, the employees of the six university clinics in North Rhine-Westphalia complain about a lack of willingness to cooperate and grueling delaying tactics on the part of employers. "The colleagues are determined to go on strike until a collective agreement has been signed," announced the responsible Verdi secretary in the Ruhr-West district, Katharina Schwabedissen, on Wednesday at a press conference in the strike tent at the University Hospital in Essen.
After two rounds of negotiations, there is at least the basic agreement that there will be a collective agreement for the relief of the six university hospitals in Bonn, Aachen, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Essen and Münster, emphasized Verdi. However, there are still obstacles to be overcome. There were obviously very different opinions on the part of the parties as to what the concrete form of a collective agreement with a binding personnel assessment for the individual areas should look like.
"The fact that we are on strike is purely self-defense," said an intensive care nurse at the Essen University Hospital. "None of us likes to go on strike. So far, employers have only made empty promises. And without a strike, no one takes notice of us." Schwabedissen emphasized: "The strikes are not a leisure activity. The employees are concerned with being able to take good care of the patients without becoming ill themselves because they are overworked. We expect that the employers will now negotiate quickly, fairly and seriously."
The employees of the six NRW university clinics have been more or less permanently in an enforcement strike for a collective agreement relief for three weeks. According to Verdi, they are calling for binding personnel assessments for all work areas in the hospitals and a load equalization for understaffed shifts.
On May 20, after a 100-day ultimatum and a 16-day strike, the first negotiations took place between the union and the boards of the university hospitals. Another appointment was on Tuesday. It's all too slow for the employees. According to a Verdi spokesman, another meeting was not yet in sight. There is a lot of understanding on the part of the employers for the goal of the employees. However, the market still lacks nursing staff in particular, they argue.
