German Retail, Food Workers Set for Coordinated Strike Wave as Wage Talks Sour
02.07.2026 - 19:25:35 | boerse-global.de
Unions are piling pressure on employers across several industries ahead of a planned day of walkouts that will shut down stores and disrupt production in seven German states on Friday.
The service-sector union Verdi has called for widespread warning strikes on July 3, with rallies scheduled in Berlin, Hamburg, Dortmund, Hannover, Braunschweig, Oldenburg and Wiesbaden. Workers from Rewe, Edeka, Kaufland, H&M and IKEA are expected to take part. The central demand: a 7 percent pay raise — at least 225 euros more per month — for a contract duration of twelve months.
Employers in the retail sector have so far offered 2.4 percent from November 2026 and a further 2 percent from August 2027, spread over two years. Verdi has rejected those terms as insufficient.
Preceding the Friday actions, workers in Baden-Württemberg walked out on Thursday. Stores including Kaufland, Primark, H&M and IKEA in Freiburg remained closed all day. Verdi is demanding 300 euros more per month for employees and an extra 150 euros for apprentices in that state. The employers' latest offer of 2 percent from October 2026 and 1.5 percent from July 2027 fell far short of expectations.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, Verdi turned down an improved employer proposal on Wednesday affecting some 700,000 workers. Further strikes in Germany's most populous state now appear likely. The union's bargaining committee noted that wages had risen by 14 percent over the past contract periods — but argues that the current offers fail to keep pace with inflation.
Parallel conflicts are playing out in the food and pharmaceutical sectors. The food-workers union NGG called a warning strike on Thursday for 2,500 employees at Dr. Oetker in Bielefeld and Oerlinghausen. The union is demanding a 5.7 percent pay increase for twelve months; the company has offered just 2 percent. The next round of negotiations is set for July 8.
Meanwhile, several hundred workers in the pharmaceutical wholesale trade walked off the job on Wednesday in Lower Saxony and Bremen. Affected sites included GEHE in Delmenhorst, Phoenix in Oldenburg, and AHD in Bremen and Harsum. Verdi is pushing for a 7 percent raise — at least 250 euros — while employers offered increases of 1.8 percent this year and 1.6 percent next year. The union rejected that outright.
Talks in the retail sector are scheduled to resume next week. With multiple industries now escalating simultaneously, the coming days are expected to test both sides' willingness to compromise.
