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UNI Commerce affiliate Ver.di says no to the German government's proposal to extend Saturday trading hours to eight o' clock in the evening. 'If shops are open until 20.00 every Saturday, the weekends will be destroyed', say the German commercial workers in a leaflet. On 14 December, a rally was held on Kurfürstendamm, the main shopping street of Berlin, the German capital. On 21 December, nationwide protests are expected.

The customers lack money for shopping, not time, ver.di says. The union points at what happened when opening hours were expanded last time, in 1996. Then it was said that this would create new jobs. Instead, since then, 30,000 to 40,000 jobs have been lost every year. - If the Chancellor [Gerhard Schröder] thinks that he has to polish his image in a business-friendly direction, he should not do this at the expense of the commercial workers, says Franziska Viethold, member of the ver.di executive board. She promises resistance from ver.di:-This is not a practicing field for trimming populist actions"

Last Saturday, ver.di members demonstrated in Berlin

Also from a business point of view, longer shop opening hours do not pay off, according to Viethold. Turnover will not grow with a single Euro-cent, but the elimination competition will be further intensified. Commerce will continue to cut jobs and only those with the lowest costs and smallest personnel will survive.

- It is absurd that the federal government on one hand states that it wants to fight unemployment, but on the other hand through an extension of trading hours will create a situation, where thousands of jobs will disappear, Viethold stated.

In a flyer, ver.di says that the social protection through shop opening regulations must be preserved. If the government succeeds in extending Saturday trading to the evening hours, weekend stress will turn into a permanent state of things.

Ulrich Dalibor, head of the ver.di retail sector says that also the employers have already started their general attack on opening hours. They are calling for re-negotiation of those collective agreements, where working hours are regulated. These are agreements which give workers the right to as many free evenings and weekends as possible, or to time compensation for uncomfortable working hours, he says.