Breaking up of bakery branches threatens – protests in Mannheim and Reutlingen – SWR news

 The  food-pleasure-restaurants (NGG) union called for a protest rally on Sunday afternoon in several cities, including Mannheim and Reutlingen. Around 250 people came to Mannheim alone.

 The  union fears that the K&U bakery company and its branches in the Edeka supermarkets will be broken up by the end of 2023. Those responsible refer to information from the works council.

 The  headquarters of the K&U administration as well as the production of the Edeka subsidiary Bäckerbub are in Mannheim. According to NGG, 1,100 employees and 190 bakeries in Edeka stores are affected.

At the request of SWR, Edeka Südwest announced that the sales outlets are to be run as a market bakery in future. In addition, sales outlets are to be gradually transferred to interested independent merchants from the Edeka Südwest association.

 The  employees should become part of the store team. For the production facilities in Neuenburg am Rhein (Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district), Mannheim, Reutlingen and Bexbach in Saarland, nothing should change, as announced by Edeka Südwest.

Union: Working conditions would be worsened

According to the union, employees would be threatened with poorer working conditions, wages would no longer be bound by collective agreements and there would then no longer be any works councils. Negative effects are also feared for the production operations of Bäckerbub GmbH, a subsidiary of Edeka.

 The  NGG state district chairman Uwe Hildebrandt had previously stated that the branches should be offered to the respective Edeka retailers for takeover or closed. “That is the opposite of social and corporate responsibility,” said Hildebrandt. He drew parallels with the Edeka subsidiary Schäfer Brot in northern Germany, which was wound up in 2013. According to Hildebrandt, it is an “economic mistake”.