NGG Secures Employment Guarantees, Extensive Limitations on Outsourcing at Coca-Cola Germany

The German Food and Allied Workers (NGG) have secured an agreement with Coca-Cola's German bottler Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetraenke AG (CCEAG) that provides extensive guarantees on job security. CCEAG, with 11,000 employees, is Germany's largest soft drink producer. The new agreement, valid through the end of 2012, was signed at the end of several months of collective bargaining and membership mobilization culminating in a marathon 4 days and nights of negotiations and threatened warning strikes. The coming conflict over job security in one of Coke's most important markets has also been on the agenda of the IUF's Global Coca-Cola Workers' Alliance.

The agreement provides for, among other things;

• a commitment to no future outsourcing of production, services or sales;
• no operational layoffs for NGG members over the life of the agreement, with any production job transfers between production sites resulting from overcapacity limited to the same sales region;
• the distribution fleet to be kept within the parent company;
• all trainees to be retained for at least 12 months following the end of the training period.

The existing framework agreement regulating working time (37.5 hour week), vacation and vacation allowances is preserved, while the company can, in response to market fluctuations, extend the workweek to 48 hours. Weekend work is to remain the exception.

The agreement also gives a modest annual wage increase with compensation for inflation.