Verdi warning strike at university hospitals – restrictions in hospitals
In several cities in North Rhine-Westphalia, numerous employees of the university clinics took to the streets again. Public service workers are demanding more wages. In Cologne and elsewhere there were restrictions in the hospitals.
Despite the increasing number of corona infections, collective bargaining employees at university hospitals in North Rhine-Westphalia and other federal states have stopped their work. According to the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”, several hundred people followed the call by the Verdi union in Cologne.
With the standouts, the employees want to increase the pressure on employers in the collective bargaining dispute over the public service of the federal states. In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, up to 2,000 collective bargaining employees wanted to strike again at the university clinics this Tuesday. The warning strike should continue on Wednesday.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the six large university hospitals in Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Essen and Münster break up on the warning strike. A spokesman for the clinic in Essen expected “significant restrictions in patient care”. However, with emergency service agreements, Verdi and the clinics had agreed that the basic services would not be jeopardized. Because of the worrying situation, especially in the intensive care units, which also care for numerous Covid 19 patients, the head of the Essen University Hospital, Jochen Werner, sharply criticized the timing of the warning strikes.
University Clinic Cologne: Normal operation again only on Thursday
At the University Clinic in Cologne, too, there was talk of expected “massive restrictions” in patient care before the strikes. The surgical program had already been reduced significantly on Monday, and there will also be significant restrictions and delays on Tuesday and Wednesday for outpatient and scheduled treatments. Only on Thursday will the university clinic gradually return to normal operations.
In the collective bargaining of the public service it is also about the staff of university hospitals, public prosecutors and local courts. The third round of negotiations is due to take place in Potsdam at the end of November. The unions are demanding an increase in income of five percent, but at least 150 euros over a period of twelve months. Healthcare workers are to receive 300 euros more per month. The collective bargaining association of German states (TdL) had so far rejected the demands as unrealistic.