Monday, July 8
Kita strike: 280 Berlin daycare centres to close down for 5 days
An ongoing conflict between the Berlin Senate and the Verdi union is deadlocked and, on Monday morning, a warning strike began that is set to close 280 daycare centres across the city and impact around 35,000 children.
The union is not demanding more money for its workers. Rather, Kita employees are trying to get the Berlin Senate to agree on a number of policies such as minimum staffing ratios, rules to protect the health of staff, improved training and more time for educational work aimed at increasing the overall quality of care.
The Senate will not hear any of these demands, however, since they insist that Berlin is bound by a collective bargaining association of German states which means that the state cannot make a separate deal. The CDU Finance Senate Stefan Evers commented that the entire action was a “pointless strike at the expense of children and parents.”
