Klaus Möller, the union secretary for the NGG (Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten), stared at the blinking cursor on his laptop. It was 2:00 AM. Outside his small office in Hamburg, the Reeperbahn was winding down. Inside, the future of 2.2 million workers was distilled into a single file: TV_NGG_2024_Endfassung.pdf
Klaus closed his laptop. Outside, a delivery truck for a bakery hummed past his window. Inside that truck, a driver was probably humming a tune, maybe checking his phone. On that phone, perhaps, was the PDF. tarifvertrag ngg lohntabelle 2024 pdf
But one email stood out. It was from a retired waitress in Cuxhaven. She had no stake in the fight. The subject line read: "Danke für die Tabelle." Klaus Möller, the union secretary for the NGG
Her job: Verkäuferin (sales staff), Group 2, Level 1. Last year: €13.50 per hour. She scanned the 2024 row. Inside, the future of 2
For six months, the union had fought. There had been warning strikes at the Beck’s brewery in Bremen, walk-outs at luxury hotels in Berlin, and tense all-nighters with the employers' association. The old wage table was a relic of the post-COVID inflation shock. The new one had to be a masterpiece of arithmetic justice.
He typed it in. He formatted the table. He made sure the footnote on the 13th month’s salary was legally watertight. Then he clicked "Save" and "Export as PDF."