WORLD WORLDWIDE GERMANY News Journal Update - (en) Germany, Likos: Ver.di strike day in Osnabrück (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

On November 1st, 2023 we showed solidarity with the striking retail
workers in Lower Saxony and Bremen. ---- The colleagues have been
conducting a collective bargaining dispute with the employers'
association since spring 2023. On the central strike day in Osnabrück,
around 400 colleagues followed ver.di's call! The Osnabrück local press
had been writing its fingers sore for days in anticipation of potential
losses in revenue on the most profitable shopping day of the year. The
fact that Osnabrück's head of marketing Alexander Illenseer called the
strike a "strategic mistake" only shows how little he understands the
principle of the union and how deeply his head is stuck in the ass of
the Lower Saxony-Bremen trade association (employers' association). He
has no empathy for the needs and interests - even more "systemically
relevant" at the time of COVID19 - of workers.

We wish our colleagues a lot of strength and endurance for the ongoing
collective bargaining round!

We would also like to share the speech from the Osnabrück Feminist
Strike Alliance with you here:

I am xxx and today I speak for the feminist strike alliance. We are
pleased to be able to say a few words to you and you today.

Today is a public holiday in North Rhine-Westphalia - normally a day
when the entire Steinfurt district comes to Osnabrück city center to
shop. This is also the criticism from employers and business owners -
there can't be a strike today!

But today we have to strike because we have to hit those sore points.

Because many of those who work in the chic shops in the city center have
to travel for hours on the bus and train at a slow pace because the
rents are far too high for the meager wages. Many of those who pack the
beautiful things can never afford these beautiful things themselves or
have to go into debt because this is the only way they have the
opportunity to be perceived as part of this society.

The customers are not always sincere people either, the workers in the
trade have to put up with disrespectful behavior, are ignored, insulted
and worse - but they are supposed to smile nicely and uphold the idea of
service.

During the pandemic, people kept talking about system relevance and what
the systemically important jobs would mean and that we would be nothing
without them. Yes, our refrigerators would be empty and we would have no
access to any goods - without trade as a systemically important economic
sector.

But what does this system relevance bring to us working people in trade,
education and healthcare? It doesn't do us any good because wages are
meager and have never increased to the same extent as productivity in
Germany since the Second World War. Systemic relevance means, above all,
relevance for profits. Without trade there is no exchange of goods for
money. Without a kindergarten there is no workforce available. Without
care, there can be no healthy workforce.

And that is why it is right that there is a strike today. We have
nothing but our labor that we can use to enforce our demands. There was
talk: The regional industrial dispute has been going on for months -
it's about 5 million employees. Who cared? Nobody. Nobody will give us
anything, they will say it is priceless. That's why we have to stand
together and show solidarity. As women in particular, we are often
exposed to precarious conditions in service jobs, the wages are not
enough to run an independent household, the working hours are poor and
we are exposed to multiple stresses from job, household, children,
family and the like.

We have to be happy when the shops are closed, the buses don't run and
grandma doesn't have her unnecessary hip operation that day. Because
then we know that our common concerns are being championed. Namely a
good life for everyone, in which we all have enough of what we need.

If you would like to take part in our feminist strike alliance, please
come to SubstAnZ on the 2nd Tuesday of the month from 6:00 p.m. to our
plenary session and our women's bar. All women and trans, inter and
non-binary people are warmly invited.

https://likos.noblogs.org/2023/11/04/ver-di-streiktag-in-osnabrueck/
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