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wants twelve euros for McDonald's
Zoff threatens in the burger stalls. If there is no collective bargaining agreement this Friday, "we will increase the pressure with strike measures," said Guido Zeitler, chairman of the Food, Beverage and Catering Union (NGG). For the third time, system catering employers, including McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks, North Sea and Pizza Hut, are negotiating with the union over the income of 120,000 employees. The starting hourly wage is currently € 9.35; So far the employers have offered 9.48 euros, the union wants a few euros more: “The demand for twelve euros shapes the collective bargaining dispute and at the same time connects the employees in the different fast food chains,” says Zeitler in an interview with Tagesspiegel.
The 48-year-old has been running the NGG with its almost 200,000 members for 15 months. Born in Berlin-Lichterfelde, Zeitler trained as a hotel specialist in a house in Wilmersdorf. He has been working for NGG for over 20 years. The core business is no different from IG Metall or Verdi, and yet the collective bargaining in the food and catering industries is more pronounced than in other sectors. "We deal with possible industrial action every week," says Zeitler, "we are world champions in house tariffs."
Anyone who does not want to pay the area tariff will be “moved” by the union at a house tariff. The NGG only tries to do this if at least 50 percent of a workforce are NGG members who would then also be willing to strike through a tariff. "The many disputes on the operational level are a feat of strength for us, but we are facing it," says the NGG boss.
For example at the Gilde brewery in Hanover. The company got out of the tariff in 2019 and now has a two-tier company among the 130-strong workforce: If you are still paid according to the tariff, your annual income is around 15,000 euros above that of the brewer without a tariff. Gilde has now split the company into four units and is fighting against the strikes with lockouts. "I have never known that in the form," says Zeitler. In the food service you go pfleglicher to each other, An important date is for the trade unionist in 2006 - at that time McDonald's decided to gradually polish up the image with better working conditions. The industry leader is a trendsetter, because half of the 120,000 fast-food chain employees work at McDonald's.
The fluctuation in the industry is large; Employees who work in the same company for several years “are rather rare,” says Zeitler. However, this also means that companies find it difficult to find personnel on the narrow labor market. Higher wages can help. The distance from the legal minimum wage (currently 9.35 euros) should be as large as possible, which is why NGG <TH> is calling twelve euros. Zeitler knows that it won't happen overnight. Negotiations are under way. All in all, the fast food economy is a growth area - also for the NGG.
In other sectors of the food and beverage industry - sugar or tobacco - things are going downhill. After the Philip Morris plant in Neukölln, there are now only cigarette factories in Langenhagen near Hanover and in Dresden.
And then there's the meat industry. Working conditions are underexposed in the debates about prices being too low, says Zeitler. “Just looking at animal welfare is not enough. We have to think about animal welfare and human welfare. ”The working and living conditions of the workers in the slaughterhouses, who often come from Eastern Europe, are still bad, overall“ less than ten percent of the slaughterhouse employees are paid according to the tariff ”. This also made the junk prices possible, at which meat was sometimes offered.
