Germany - Employers’ federation calls union demands illusory - January 28, 2011

The president of the German Employers’ Federation (BDA), Dieter Hundt, has characterized the unions demands for the upcoming bargaining rounds “straight out of never-never land and completely illusory”, though he said that employers are prepared to pay their workers more than a cost of living increase.  According to Hundt, even if the country’s economy grew last year at its fastest rate since reunification, the catastrophic plunge in 2009 means that output will only reach pre-crisis levels at the end of this year.

English: http://www.forexpros.com/news/interest-rates-news/german-employers-say ...

German: http://www.arbeitgeber.de/www/arbeitgeber.nsf/res ...

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. 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.