Even though they left the mutual agreementUnion threatens Adidas with forced strike
In August, Adidas said goodbye to the industry’s collective agreement. The union still wants higher wages for the sporting goods giant’s employees and has threatened to strike. The previous rate offer above was not enough for employee representatives.
The IG BCE union wants to implement higher wages at Adidas, even though the company left an industry collective agreement in August. “We have asked the board to enter into collective bargaining with us,” said the letter addressed to union members at Adidas, which was made available to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. In it, IG BCE, among other things, demanded a salary increase of seven percent and additional holidays for union members. Collective bargaining committees were initially created for the Uffenheim and Scheinfeld locations.
The union set a November 24 deadline to respond to the demands. “If the council allows the deadline to pass, we will increase collective pressure step by step – if necessary, up to and including a forced strike,” the letter continued.
When asked, an Adidas spokesperson said: “We will comment on this to IG BCE.” The company has always emphasized that it is committed to fair wages and will fully implement wage increases that affect collective bargaining for employees and trainees. Adidas will raise the collectively agreed wages of around 4,600 employees in Germany to a greater extent and from a higher starting point than the recently passed collective agreement between industry association HDSL and trade union IG BCE: “For all wage groups, the increase is 0.5 percentage points higher than specified in the collective agreement.” There is also a one-off payment of 450 euros for four months.
But the union is not satisfied with this: “For a company that has recently achieved gross profit margins of more than 50 percent, this is a very poor excuse.” Many employees in logistics and sample production are stuck in low-wage groups and have little opportunity for further development. “Anyone who produces for football millionaires and works to ensure smooth supply to customers deserves more appreciation.” IG BCE initially demanded seven percent higher salaries for two locations in the company’s collective agreement, much higher than agreed in the new industry-wide collective agreement.
