Over 1,500 church workers joined a demonstration in Magdeburg on 4 November organized by services union ver.di over the right to strike. Church organisations are major employers in the country’s health and social services sector but are opposed to granting normal employment rights to their workers. The synod (parliament) of the Evangelical Church met that day and reaffirmed its rule banning employees from taking strike action. The ver.di union regretted the decision and said that it would only serve to sharpen the conflict between the union and church employers.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/446
German:http://www.streikrecht-ist-grundrecht.de/node/195
This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. or the communications officer of the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.