Today warning strike at the Barmer GEK

Warning strike of the Barmer employees

04/22/2014

Today, Tuesday and Wednesday, Germany's second-largest health insurance company, the Barmer GEK, is giving warning strikes throughout Germany. The full-day strike has attracted 15,000 GEK employees across the country. The focus is on Berlin, where a bigger demonstration takes place.

Nationwide strike with a focus on Berlin
At Germany's second largest health insurance, the Barmer GEK, according to press reports until 2018, a massive job cuts planned. By then, 3,500 jobs should be canceled and the branch network halved. The union Verdi has now called for about 15,000 GEK employees for nationwide warning strikes for today. The focus is in Berlin, where both the main administration and branches are affected. Hundreds of workers from all over Germany are expected to attend a demonstration in Mitte, including participants from Lower Saxony, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.

Increase pressure on the Barmer GEK
Verdi calls for salary increases of 5.2 percent. From the employers' side, 2.5 percent increase and another percent from July 2015 were offered on April 1 this year. The union rejected this as inadequate. Sylvi Krisch, negotiator for Verdi, criticized the employer offer as too low. According to a press release she said: „The employees are to go out for the first three months empty and only after a total of 18 months receive a miserable second increase. That was unacceptable to the negotiating commission. Therefore, we will now increase the pressure on the Barmer GEK.“

Warning strike parallel to collective bargaining
According to the United Nations Trade Union, the employer offer only equates to an increase of just 1.75 percent over the entire two-year term. And in terms of the first step in the increase and the period of validity for the first 18 months of the collective agreement, the increase is even only 1.667 percent. Krisch emphasized that the offer for the Barmer employees lags far behind the tariff developments of the statutory health insurance. After the work stoppages on Tuesday in the two headquarters in Wuppertal and Berlin, the collective bargaining negotiations in Schwäbisch Gmünd will take place on Wednesday, with employees at the same time going on the warning strike there. (Sb)