Warning strike in Stavenhagen: Employees fight for fair wages!

Warning strike in Stavenhagen: Employees fight for fair wages!

Collective bargaining in the fruit and vegetable industry in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is currently at a standstill. How Northern Courier reported, the second round of negotiations ended on May 8, 2025 without a result, which prompted the food-pleasure-restaurants union (NGG) to call for warning strikes. A planned warning strike on Friday, May 23, 2025, will bring around 200 employees of the Aviko Rixona Pfanni factory in Stavenhagen onto the streets.

The warning strike begins at 5:30 a.m. and ends at 2:45 p.m. There will also be a demonstration in front of the factory from 5:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. Employers are offering a wage increase of just 2.6 percent for 2025 and 2.3 percent for 2026. The NGG judges this offer to be inadequate and expresses the fear that the differences in wages between East and West Germany will continue to exist. Jörg Dahms, managing director of the NGG Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania region, emphasizes that the wage gaps urgently need to be closed.

The historical wage gap between East and West

The fight for fair wages takes place in a larger context, because the wage differences between East and West Germany are still serious. Loud WSI Employees in the East earn up to 900 euros less per month than their colleagues in the West. Despite union progress and rising wages, equal pay remains a pressing issue, 30 years after reunification. In the East German food industry in particular, the NGG is leading a collective bargaining campaign with the aim of equalizing wages.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the start of collective bargaining in the new federal states in late 1990, there have been several wage-oriented advances. While in 1990 most wage earners in the East only achieved 50 percent or less of the West level, this level rose to around 90 percent by 1997. But after 1995, collective bargaining policy developments were less dynamic.

Current challenges in collective bargaining policy

The political framework for an agreement remains challenging. The development of collective bargaining policy is characterized by declining collective bargaining coverage and a wage wall that is still noticeable. Currently, collective bargaining coverage in East Germany is only 45 percent and only 9 percent of companies in the private sector have a works council. The NGG campaign “We are tearing down the wage wall!” is an example of the active collective bargaining policy that is necessary to enforce fair working conditions.

The next round of negotiations will take place on June 16, 2025. Until then, it remains to be seen whether an agreement will be reached that meets the expectations of employees and finally reduces the wage differences between East and West.