For the Verdi trade union, 2015 draws to a close with mixed results. On 17 December in Essen, after a month of negotiations, the German trade union active in the service sector managed to sign a “decisive” agreement with Primark. As part of the agreement, the Irish low-cost fashion retailer commits to paying its 7000 employees in Germany according to regional collective agreements, which are binding in the retail and mail-order sales industries. Conversely, no solution appears to be on the horizon in the conflict between Verdi and Amazon, which has been waged for almost two years. On 21 December, just a few days before Christmas, Verdi called on Amazon employees at six logistics sites — in Koblenz, Rheinburg, Werne, Bad Hersfeld, Graben and Leipzig— to go on strike, in order to get better working conditions and force through the signing of a collective agreement.
A decisive marker for the industry. With Verdi having fought for years on numerous fronts, to halt the erosion of the collective agreement system and to convince large retailers (Globus, Amazon, Real, etc.) to adopt the collective agreements in force in the retail industry, the signing of this new agreement with Primark has been a great surprise for Germany. Stefanie Nutzenberger, who is charge of retail as one of Verdi’s directors, said “this is a great success and a significant marker for the
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