WIESBADEN (dpa-AFX) - Collective bargaining in the main construction industry has failed after the third round, according to trade unions, and will now go to arbitration. The employers had not submitted a negotiable offer, explained Carsten Burckhardt, Federal Executive Board member of the Industrial Union for Construction, Agriculture and the Environment (IG BAU) on Tuesday evening. "Two wage increases of just over three percent over 24 months simply do not compensate for the immense rise in the cost of living in recent years and months."

The union is demanding 500 euros more in wages, salaries and training allowances per month for a period of one year for the approximately 930,000 employees. A strike is only possible after arbitration has failed.

Burckhardt explained that the construction industry was not doing badly across the board. Civil engineering, infrastructure construction and also public construction were on the upswing, only the order situation in the construction of detached and semi-detached houses had collapsed./toz/DP/mis