Germany's main industrial union vowed Sunday to press ahead with preparations for a full-scale strike in the next few days after the collapse of pay talks with employers.
The threat of walkouts in key industries of Europe's biggest economy comes as Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder seeks re-election this fall against a conservative challenger, Edmund Stoiber, who is assailing his economic record.
But a deputy head of IG Metall, which represents workers in the auto, electronics and other major industries, again rebuffed warnings from economists that a big raise could delay a recovery and ruled out a resumption of pay negotiations for now.
"Nothing can stop this process," Juergen Peters said in a newspaper interview.
Union leaders are due to meet Tuesday to approve holding a strike vote in key regions. After the ballots are counted, a strike could start May 6, Peters told Frankfurter Allgemeine.
It would be Germany's first major strike in six years. Schroeder has urged the two sides to avoid ``trampling the shoots of recovery,'' with Germany's economy just making its way out of a recession and unemployment at 10 percent.
The head of the national employers association, Dieter Hundt, accused IG Metall of sabotaging the economy and urged the union to return to the bargaining table.
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