This year’s collective labor agreement negotiations contain a lot of explosive material. After interrupted talks among the metal workers there is now a strike. Retail workers are demonstrating in Vienna and Salzburg on Tuesday for higher wages. The union has entered the ring with a demand for an 11 percent wage increase, but there is still no offer from retail employers.
The next KV round is at the dealers on Thursday. A deal before the metal companies is considered unlikely. In Vienna, workers’ representatives and workers have been marching through the city center since 11 a.m. to further emphasize their demands. The last meeting takes place during lunch at the opera house on the corner of Kärntner Straße. Employer’s chief negotiator and trade chairman Rainer Trefelik has a fashion store there.
Employers complain about bankruptcies
In the negotiations, retailers point to declining sales, declining employment figures and an increase in the number of bankruptcies. There were 483 retail bankruptcies in the first half of the year, putting the sector at the top of bankruptcy statistics, Trefelik said. Well-known retailers such as Kika/Leiner, Forstinger, Gerry Weber, Reno and the Sport 2000 cooperative Zentrasport had to file for bankruptcy this year.
From January to September, retail sales in Austria recorded a real decline of 3.5 percent compared to the same period last year, CBS recently announced. The number of employed people has fallen by 1,700 compared to the previous year – “and we fear that this is not the end of this trend,” says Rainer Will, director of the trade association.
Trade chairman urges ‘creative solutions’
“I expect that the union will be willing to take a step in our direction in the next round of negotiations,” Trefelik said at a press conference on Tuesday. “Creative solutions obviously also mean one-off payments. This helps companies in the currently very difficult profit situation, but employees also benefit from it,” said the employer representative. The union is rejecting one-off payments for the approximately 430,000 retail workers.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
