The Verdi union is planning protests against the announced exit from Galeria Kaufhof in Leipzig. “We will fight for the branch,” said the state district department head for trade, Torsten Furgol, on Tuesday. It would be a “super meltdown” if such a large area in the middle of Leipzig’s city center remained empty. There are already other vacancies in the city.
Which campaigns are specifically planned is currently being coordinated with the around 160 employees of the department store. Furgol said Verdi could imagine collecting signatures or a human chain. But that only makes sense if the employees are behind the protest. According to Furgol, support for the protest should also be sought from local and state politicians.
Germany’s last major department store group, Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof, announced on Monday that it would close the branch in Leipzig and 51 other stores nationwide. The group announced that there were “no positive prospects of continuation” for the locations. In Leipzig it should be over by the end of June. The department stores in Chemnitz and Dresden, on the other hand, are to be retained. The background is the ongoing economic difficulties of the department store group. (dpa)