Impending closings
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Kaufhof employees demonstrate on Monday in Krefeld, Neuss and Mönchengladbach
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A girl carries a shopping bag with the imprint of the department store group Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof.
Photo: dpa / Arne Dedert
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Krefeld Impending closings and shaking jobs – the employees of Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof announce protest campaigns in the region – also at the Krefeld location.
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In view of the impending closings, employees of the Kaufhof branch in Krefeld want to demonstrate on Monday for the preservation of the location and their jobs. This announced the United Services Union (Verdi) at the weekend. Corresponding demonstrations are also planned in Neuss and Mönchengladbach, according to the union. According to the information, they take place at company meetings.
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In Krefeld, the campaign will start at around 10 a.m. in front of the local Kaufhof on Neumarkt (Neuss around 10:15 a.m. in front of the Kaufhof and Mönchengladbach, 10.50 a.m.). “The locations will probably be closed until after the campaign due to the previous company meetings “It says in a Verdi message.
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Is there a risk of a Kaufhof closure in Krefeld? That says Verdi
But does the Kaufhof site in Krefeld also face closure? The group management has not yet commented on the affected houses, explains Dominik Kofent, managing director of Verdi for the district of Lower Niederrhein to our editorial team on Sunday. The Kaufhof in Krefeld is a location that – before the corona pandemic – made a profit, said Kofent. This is also why the employees would demand that the department store be held in Krefeld.
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80 houses are “in the fire”
A good third of Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof’s department stores cannot be saved, according to the renovators. “In the end, ideally, almost two-thirds of the 172 department stores could go on,” said the temporary administrator of the department store chain, Frank Kebekus, in May of the “Wirtschaftswoche”. That would mean the closure of at least 58 houses. “We made it clear to everyone involved that 80 houses were“ on fire ”, said Kebekus. But there is still hope for more than a dozen of these branches.
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“We made it clear to everyone involved that 80 houses were“ on fire ”, said Kebekus. But there is still hope for more than a dozen of these branches. “If there are any concessions from landlords and other parties involved at these locations, things can go on there,” says Kebekus.
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Corona crisis has put the department store chain in a difficult position
The corona crisis had put the department store chain in an extremely difficult position. “We are assuming a billion loss in sales this year and do not expect customers to shop again in the coming year as they did before Corona. That means that by the end of 2022 the loss in sales could even increase to a total of around 1.4 billion euros, ”said General Manager Arndt Geiwitz. The group can therefore only survive with severe cuts.
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Verdi demands government aid
In the struggle to save the Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof department store chain, the Verdi union is calling for state intervention. “It is now time for political and financial support for employees through politics in the municipalities, municipalities, state governments and the federal government,” said Verdi negotiator Orhan Akman after a meeting of the collective agreement for the department store group in Essen at the end of May. Support is also needed “in the form of state aid,” said Akman.
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Akman called the previously presented considerations for a reorganization “idealess, uncreative and disregard for 35,000 employees and their families”. No new ideas for a sustainable, sustainable future concept were presented. The concept speaks the same language as the previous management plans with staff cuts and wage cuts.
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