The breweries will not continue their 24-hour strike for the time being. But if there is no improved offer from employers, there will be more “actions” this week, said Bianca Reiter, negotiator for the PRO-GE union. How to proceed will be discussed tomorrow. The 24-hour strike is also to be made up in four or five breweries that did not stop work today, including Stiegl.
It is reassuring for the many beer drinkers in Austria that there are no signs of bottlenecks in the supply of beer for the time being, say both Reiter and Florian Berger, Managing Director of the Brewery Association.
Union wants to continue negotiations earlier
There would have to be a continuous strike for three to four days, until “something might get tighter here and there,” says Berger. But that also depends on whether there are still promotions in the supermarkets – and whether there are advance purchases. In principle, the next negotiation date for December 21 has already been agreed, but the union would like to continue negotiations earlier.
After six rounds of negotiations, the unions are demanding a ten percent increase in salary, the employers are offering seven percent, with an agreed inflation rate of 6.9 percent. The employees point out that this is practically only an adjustment for inflation. The employers accuse the union that their demands are “out of proportion to the continuing difficult economic situation in the industry” and the reduced demand for beer.
