The nurses in the Vivantes clinics and the also state-owned Charité are still on strike at least until the weekend – then Verdi is ready to limit the labor dispute if there are new employer offers. The union negotiator, Meike Jäger, said on Wednesday. For the first time, Charité CEO Heyo Kroemer is also offering a meeting with Verdi on Saturday.
The strikers are demanding an enforceable staff quota – ultimately for each of the 200 stations. The board of directors of the university clinic offers 15 personnel keys, so the wards would be sorted by subject area. Verdi calls for a “relief collective agreement” for shifts with massive staff shortages to compensate for leisure time; the Charité mainly offers monetary supplements.
In the Vivantes clinics, in addition to the required maintenance key, higher wages for cleaning and kitchen staff in the subsidiaries are important. Verdi announced that the strike would be suspended there at the weekend in order to negotiate again. According to the union, 450 out of 4,700 nurses are on strike at the Charité, 250 of the 3,000 beds are blocked. At Vivantes, 800 of 4900 nurses participate, 700 of 5700 beds are blocked.
Verdi activists reported that more workers were on strike, but were bound by “excessive emergency service instructions” on the wards. Anneliese Pötzsch, intensive care nurse at the Vivantes Clinic Neukölln, said on Wednesday: “My ward is running almost the same as it was before the strike.” The nationwide quota of one intensive care nurse for two patients would be constantly undermined, often one employee takes care of three or four Cases.
Pfleger speaks of the clinic manager’s “campaign”
Thomas Pottgießer from the Kreuzberg Urban Hospital reported that the board had threatened the strikers with “recourse claims” if patients were to be harmed. The nurse, who sits in the Verdi Vivantes clearing house responsible for such questions, spoke of a “campaign” by the clinic managers.
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The Vivantes board rejects this. He had asked the President of the Berlin Medical Association to mediate in such cases: Peter Bobbert should therefore help with the medical assessment of possible emergency patients, not with tariff issues.
Verdi had called for an indefinite strike last Thursday. Before that, there were numerous warning strikes and a 100-day ultimatum announced in May. In the red-red-green coalition, the situation in the state’s own hospitals was discussed. To this day, however, the responsible senators have not advised the Charité and Vivantes boards to take any action, and no financial commitments have been made.
