[A-List] Germany: state sector labour militancy

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

German public sector wage talks break down
By Hugh Williamson in Berlin and Lorenz Wagner in Kassel
Financial Times: December 19 2002

Wage talks affecting  about three million German public sector workers
collapsed early on Thursday, raising the prospect of a major strike in
January.

Frank Bsirske, head of the Verdi service sector union,
said the marathon talks had failed to produce an agreement and
that the union had rejected a pay offer from government
employers as "totally unacceptable."

Earlier, Mr Bsirske warned that unless the employers "tabled a sensible
initial pay offer", a strike ballot was likely in early January. Full-scale
strikes could start in mid-January.

Employers' representatives at the two days of talks, which opened on
Wednesday in Kassel, western Germany, were ready to present an initial
offer, officials indicated, although this would be significantly below
Verdi's demand of an increase of over 3 per cent.

The government and local authorities have argued for weeks that a wage
freeze was necessary in the light of the poor state of public finances.

In a sign of continued employer reticence to give ground to Verdi, Otto
Schily, interior minister and chief government negotiator, sharply
criticised the union for mounting large-scale warning strikes this week,
which on Tuesday left 25,000 airline passengers stranded.

A failure to reach an agreement, following the start of negotiations last
month, would increase pressure on the government, which is already facing
severe budgetary problems in 2003.

Verdi argues that its demand is in line with wage settlements this year in
the private sector. Mr Bsirske yesterday dismissed the argument that tight
public finances meant a large pay increase was not possible.

The state of public finances "was not God-given, but was a result of
political decisions that could be corrected", he said.

The wage negotiations cover 2.9m public sector workers including nurses,
firefighters, local government employees and others.