Industrial action is set for “further escalation” in Germany’s Bavarian dairy industry, according to a local food trade union.
The Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten (NGG) said that the second-round wage negotiations with 27 dairy companies, including Danone, Ehrmann and Nestlé, in Bavaria fell through last week, after around 12 hours of talks.
The union has issued notice of “warning strikes” since last week when it announced one at the Würzburg dairy, followed by the early shift at the Danone plant in Ochsenfurt-Goßmannsdorf going on strike for several hours.
According to the German publication Main Post, around 50 employees joined the call for a strike. The 27 companies include Andechser Molkerei, Bauer, Bergader, BMI, Edelweiss, Goldsteig, Hochland, Karwendel, Meggle, Stegmann and Zott.
The NGG said that employers offered a 4% wage increase. It added that “the employers are not prepared to make a negotiable offer”.
Mustafa Öz, chief negotiator and regional chairman of NGG Bayern, said: “It is incomprehensible and unbelievable that especially in the industry, which is economically very successful, very high sums are invested in the plants, record increases in sales are recorded and there is a great shortage of personnel, the employees are so offended with this poor offer.
“Unfortunately, this means that a further escalation is inevitable.”
Just Food has contacted Danone, Ehrmann and Nestlé for comment on the strike action.
NGG managing director Ibo Ocak labelled the strike actions so far as very positive, according to Main Post.
He said: “The willingness to strike here and throughout Bavaria is high. That strengthens us in the negotiations and gives us a good feeling.”
Ernst Valentin, chairman of the works council at Danone and member of the collective bargaining committee, reportedly added: “It is time once again to show that we, as employees in the dairy industry, support the union's demands.”
Last month, employees across Nestlé, Zentis and Carl Kühne in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia region announced that further strikes were likely.
Strikes began at two Zentis sites in Aachen on 15 May, when 150 employees staged a two-hour strike in a dispute over pay, another NGG managing director Tim Lösch told Just Food.
