Survey of works councils in lead up to negotiations

The ver.di services union and dbb civil service union are co-operating in a week of activities to highlight the work of regional government employees. In the week of 24-28 January there will be a series of events in major cities that will focus on different occupations – such as hospital and college employees, teachers and tax workers. The unions want to emphasise the important services provided by these works and the challenging working conditions they fact. The unions want a 3% pay increase plus a flat-rate rise of €50. [Read more at > ver.di (DE)->http://presse.verdi.de/pressemitteilungen

The energy section of the ver.di services union has begun consulting members over forthcoming pay negotiations over the public sector agreement covering municipal utility companies (TV-V). The union warns that bargaining is likely to be tough in the current economic climate with local authorities pleading poverty. However, the union believes that it is important to secure real increases in pay to help maintain consumer spending in response to the crisis and it lists recent bargaining results in the energy sector and wider economy to support its argument. [Read more at > ver.di (DE)->https:/

The next round of pay negotiations for central and local government workers will get underway on 25 February following a series of warning strikes organised by ver.di. From 14 February thousands of council workers, federal employees and health workers in different cities and regions began taking strike action to show their disgust at the failure of the employers to make any significant improvement to their earlier pay offer. Ver.di reports high levels of support for strike action and a rise in union membership in some areas. Ver.di has set up a “Strike TV” website where you can follow progress