Labor actions halt operations. - Ver.di urges educators in municipal daycare centers to begin a warning strike.
Ver.di, a union, is urging a warning strike on Thursday for approximately 7,600 workers at municipal Berlin kindergartens. This was revealed by ver.di on Monday. These employees work in 282 kindergartens and care for an estimated 35,000 children, according to self-employed Berlin kindergartens. A spokesperson for ver.di shared that they anticipate high attendance during the strike.
Contrary to their typical goal of a salary raise, this warning strike seeks a collective bargaining agreement aimed at maintaining educational quality and easing the workload. The Senate has reportedly declined to participate in negotiations, which leads ver.di to plan further strikes if their demands are not met. This includes a three-day warning strike from next Monday.
A key aspect of the collective bargaining agreement ver.di strives for is improving the ratio of pedagogical staff to children, particularly due to high absenteeism rates. Moreover, ver.di desires to introduce a burden compensation if predetermined guidelines are not followed. Martina Breitmann, a kindergarten manager at a self-employed Berlin kindergarten, stated in a ver.di release, "We carry out this profession with great responsibility towards the children and parents. However, the future of our profession is currently a gamble being played by those in power who do not take the crisis seriously. That's why we're striking now to persuade the Senate to end its deadlock."
