Warning strike in Kiel: 300 employees demand 12% more wages!

Warning strike in Kiel: 300 employees demand 12% more wages!

On May 22, 2025, the employees of Provinzial Versicherung in Kiel are calling for a warning strike. The ver.di union expects around 300 participants to take part in the demonstration in front of the office. The warning strike is planned for Thursday, May 22nd and Friday, May 23rd and is a reaction to the pending collective bargaining. According to NDR The strikers' wage demands are particularly central, demanding an increase of 12 percent.

In addition to the general wage demands, ver.di highlights specific concerns, including a monthly increase in training pay of 250 euros, a higher subsidy for travel costs and more days off for trainees before exams. These demands are part of a broader effort to address the economic pressures caused by inflation and rising costs of living. The employer offer in the last round of collective bargaining was only an 8.6 percent wage increase, which employees perceive as inadequate.

Context of collective bargaining

The strike action is part of the current collective bargaining negotiations in the internal service of the private insurance industry, which began on April 28th in Munich and extends to around 160,000 employees. The first round of negotiations did not produce any results, which underlines ver.di negotiator Martina Grundler's disappointment with the employers' offers. She criticized the fact that the current offer does not compensate for the loss of income caused by inflation.

In the negotiations, employees are demanding a salary increase of 12 percent over a period of 12 months. While employers have offered a 3.6 percent increase in the first year, employees are being asked to more clearly value their performance. Silke Murawa from ERGO Group AG supports these demands and criticizes the inadequate employer offer.

Nationwide strike action

The warning strikes are not limited to Kiel, but are taking place nationwide. In Berlin, for example, employees of well-known companies such as ERGO, Allianz, IDEAL Lebensversicherung and Axa Group are taking part in the protests. These actions include creative measures to draw attention to the legitimacy of their demands.

Additional demands from ver.di include the possibility of flexibly converting salary components into free time, a collective agreement regulation for the permanent employment of trainees and the retention of the collective agreement regulations for partial retirement. In addition, ver.di plans to negotiate a new collective agreement with the employers' association, which is intended to protect the interests of employees in the context of digital changes. In doing so, the union shows its determination to continue to actively represent the demands in the future.