Germany: strike in public services continues but negotiations are suspended

The strikes which are affecting public services in several German Länders since February 6, continued, Tuesday February 21, after the failure of a first top-level negotiation held the day before, in Berlin, between representatives of the German public sector and the services trade union Verdi. A new negotiation at the top level should be held "around March 10" announced a Länder representative, Ralf Stegner, vice-president of Tarifgemeinschaft der Länder (TdL). (Réf. 06164)
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According to Frank Bsirske, President of Verdi, the discussions which took place on February 20 led to nothing. But the tone of negotiations clearly changed, compared to previous months : “employers apparently understood that they could not dictate an agreement”, said the trade unionist in an interview to the public radio Deutschlandfunk.

Ralf Stegner, vice-president of TdL, was also optimistic: “we met for the first time in months and we negotiated in a reasonable way”, he said.

Verdi is still

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