Essen (dpa / lnw) – With another nationwide strike at six university clinics in North Rhine-Westphalia, the employees want to underpin their demands for a collective agreement to relieve them and increase the pressure in the ongoing negotiations. As the Verdi union announced on Wednesday, large rallies and demonstrations are planned in Essen this Thursday.
The opening rally will take place at 10 a.m. at the University Hospital in Essen. At around 12:00 p.m., the participants in the strike want to march from there to the Alfried Krupp Hospital for the final rally at 1:00 p.m. Katharina Wesenick, Verdi State Department Head for Health, and Knut Giesler from IG Metall NRW have been announced as speakers. Several hundred participants are expected.
The strikes at six university hospitals are now in their tenth week. Although there is progress in the negotiations between Verdi and the clinic management, a breakthrough in the dispute over the so-called “collective agreement relief” (TV-E) has not yet been achieved.
Sticking points in the negotiations are, in particular, fixed staffing levels in individual clinic areas, which regulate the relationship between nursing staff and patients and a corresponding relief if the numbers are not met. The clinics have so far offered a flat-rate arrangement with days off for this case, but not for all sub-areas in the clinics.
