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The Education Workers' Union of ZSP-IWA supports the call for actions against the Heinrich Böll Foundation, due to the working conditions at their Berlin office and their actions against organizing workers. We will take part in the international week of actions called by FAU-IWA and will continue to support this struggle for as long as it takes for the workers' rights to be recognized and for the Foundation to change its policies.

To quote the call from the FAU, "Both the Green Party and Heinrich Böll Foundation criticize the precariousness of labor condition and call for a minimum wage of 8.50 Euro/hour in the current election campaign. But the Heinrich Böll Foundation has been outsourcing cleaning, catering and event management for years, thereby contributing to precarious labor themselves – some of their temps don't even make the minimum wage the Green Party is calling for.

Workers there who joined the FAU Berlin and made this scandalous state of affairs public in May are no longer welcome at the Heinrich Böll Foundation, who conveniently decided to change temp agencies to rid themselves of the problem. In Germany, employers cannot normally kick out workers so easily, but thanks to outsourcing the Heinrich Böll Foundation had an easy time of it: If the temps raise their voice, we'll change the contractor. We call what the Heinrich Böll Foundation is doing union busting and demand that they give those they kicked out permanent contracts with standard wages. "

The ZSP completely shares the FAU's attitude towards outsourcing and the use of temp agencies and call on the Foundation to ensure normal working conditions to all staff, not to divide workers in valued and unvalued employees.

We will not be silent on this issue and feel it is the duty of all activists fighting against precarity to support each others struggles internationally. We already will send a clear message to the Foundation in advance: we are not going to buy any of the bullshit that you tell your representatives to try and escape responsibility. A few months ago we visited one event of the Foundation in Warsaw and a few days later, the local chapter of the Foundation published some PR statement saying that the Foundation "understands the weight of the problem and is intensively working to resolve it". Bullshit. The Foundation just changed the contractor, effectively firing the people who were organizing.

We expect the Foundation to provide their local chapter another interesting story to explain their behaviour, but the facts are clear: it is outsourcing and it has acted to rid itself of unionists.

We call on our all friends and comrades to support this struggle against this employer, which hides behind a green smoke screen of hypocrisy. Organize a protest in your city and support the comrades from FAU Education Union in Berlin in their struggle!

Send your messages of solidarity to this event on Facebook.

See also: More Reasons to Protest the Social Europe Congress