Wednesday night on 18. 05 the collective bargaining commission of Ver. di announced a breakthrough in the wage disputes in the social and educational service. A number of agreements were reached with the VKA that purportedly aim at relieving the workload of educators and social workers and increasing the financial value of the work.
Frank Wernke (Ver. di-Chair) and Christine Behle (Ver. di-Co-Chair) quickly announced that in the negotiations, the relief of workers in day care centers had been achieved. Simply put, they have hardly achieved anything. If you look at the results you quickly see that the offer did not achieve any improvement of the workers in the day care centers. The agreements on revaluation and discharge are described as a great success.
In the area of upgrading, it is alleged that a lump sum of 130€ for educators and 180€ gross for social workers was negotiated. Claim was an After taxes and duties about 60-80€ remain. This is to apply from July onwards. In view of an inflation rate of over 7%, this lump sum does not help much to compensate for the increased cost of living, let alone an appreciation of the whole profession.
In addition to the “upgrading”, the negotiating committee celebrates the creation of so-called “discharge days. ” This is two extra days of vacation, you can also buy two extra days of vacation from your 130€ lump sum.
If you talk to educators in the institutions or look at the comments column of Ver. di, you can see that this agreement does not reflect the interests of the employees. The two days of discharge are rejected by a large majority, because they ensure that colleagues are even more alone in the groups and have to shoulder the work on the days alone. Ver. di has achieved exactly the opposite of what they wanted. Colleagues are subjected to even more strain. In a video statement, Christine Behle admits not to have taken up the interests of daycare workers in collective bargaining, since they could not be part of collective agreements. A big problem for many educators is the question of the skilled worker/child key or the massive shortage of staff. Neither was the subject of the negotiations.
Educators ready to fight end of modesty
The conditions for a better outcome of the negotiations would have been possible. However, the tariff commission capitulated by trotting after the VKA again and again and prolonged the negotiations several times. The members in the facilities were ready for a permanent strike and also the participation in the warning strikes was higher than normal. 45,000 strikers are for this professional field, because one gets inscribed that one should not strike under any circumstances because one would harm the children and parents enormously. Until June 17, the result is now being discussed within the union.
