Dirty autumn
October 20, 2009
The nationwide strike started just after midnight on Tuesday with 1,000 cleaning employees walking off their early shifts in Magdeburg, a city about 150 kilometers west of Berlin.
Schools, office buildings, airports and hospitals will go uncleaned, although the IG BAU trade union has promised that a minimum level of cleaning will be maintained at hospital emergency rooms.
Unionized employees – which experts estimate represent only about 10 percent of 850,000 cleaners in Germany – have been without a contract since October 1. They are asking for an 8.7 percent pay raise, yet several rounds of negotiations have produced only a stalemate.
Union officials say full-time cleaners earn, on average, 800 euros ($1,200) per month. Many earn far less with part-time work. The union has warned that wage dumping from non-unionized workers could further erode earnings.
Preventing "hunger wages"
Over the past 10 years, the number of people considered to be low-wage earners in Germany increased from 15 to 22 percent, reaching a total of 6.5 million people, according to a study released last year.
The incoming center-right government in Berlin has pledged to take up the cause of low-paid workers, but it appears unlikely that whatever steps it takes will satisfy workers in the cleaning industry.
"We have agreed to oppose a minimum wage in Germany," Ronald Pofalla of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) said last week.
The issue has come up during coalition talks between Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats and the business-friendly liberal Free Democrats. Both parties signalled they were interested in preventing employers from paying “hunger wages” of less than 3.50 euros per hour. Unions have called for a minimum wage of 7.50 euros per hour.
Cleaners' previous wage agreement set a minimum hourly wage of 6.58 euros in eastern Germany and 8.15 in western Germany.
th/AFP/AP/dpa
Editor: Chuck Penfold