Like Indians in the Reservation

Direkte Aktion, FAU's bimonthly newspaper, talked to a site group member of Babylon, a cinema in Berlin which became famous in 2009/2010 after a hard-bitten labour dispute.

After the juridical melée and labour dispute, it has become silent around Babylon. How did you experience the last months?

We feel exhausted in a stagnating situation. Most employees have been replaced by others, our labour dispute has been undermined by Ver.di and they sold us a worse labour agreement. The new workers which came found out very soon how the wind blows at Babylon. In the beginning they kowtowed to the threat of loosing their jobs. It is hard to explain what happened. We feel like Indians in the reservation.

Your initial claims are two years old now. What remains to be done?

Our claims remain the same. But there are many things to do. It is still us against the executive board, the Ver.di bosses and the bureaucrats at the Senate of Berlin who completely deny our right to fight.

End of March, the workers council criticised ver.di and the Babylon leadership for breaking the company agreement. What was going on?

When Ver.di intervened in the conflict, they promised a collective labour agreement. All we got was a fistful of dollars in a cheap company agreement. Improvements of this company agreement, which approach standards set by collective labour agreements, have been planned for October 2010. But up til March 2011 nothing happened. After the workers council's press release, two points have been changed and presumably backdated and signed. The executive board did slightly increase the night shift premium and therefore received a new deadline to install collective labour agreements. Germany's biggest union, Ver.di, sells this as their success and as another step towards a collective labour agreement at Babylon. In fact, they only mentioned the additional night shift premium of the company agreement and not the losses which have been caused by not installing a collective labour agreement so far. Besides, Andreas Köhn, who is Ver.di's chief negotiator, spread fantastic conspiracy theories about the workers council, FAU Berlin and other “evil forces”.

How would you describe FAU's relation to the workers council?

We are lucky about us and the workers council having the same interests. We fight together. Without this, it would be hard to have a relation to this institution.

It seems like a question of honour for your boss not to give in to FAU. When will he be pensioned?

He does already look worn out. If he goes, maybe he can work for Ver.di. They have a terrific relationship.