German workers are disrupting production for a second day as strikes focus on companies ranging from home appliance maker Bosch-Siemens Hausgeraete GmbH to turbine maker Alstom Power Generation.
At least 19 companies are the targets of strikes by about 20,000 workers in Baden-Wuerttemberg, the home state of Porsche AG and Robert Bosch GmbH. Carmakers suffered walkouts yesterday after IG Metall, Germany's second-largest union, called for the first strike in seven years.
PHOTO: AP
"The loss in production will hurt us because we don't have any inventory," said Peter Hutsch, managing director at Alcan Singen GmbH in Singen, which builds the aluminium frame for the Audi A2. "We're hoping this won't escalate."
Europe's largest economy is struggling to recover from its first recession in eight years. Business confidence fell in April for the first time in six months and unemployment rose for 15 out the last 16 months. Strikes may hurt company profits, slowing an expansion later this year.
Talks between IG Metall and employers in the metals and engineering industry broke down last month. The union had pared its demand to about 4 percent from 6.5 percent and employers refused to offer more than 3.3 percent.
"The strikes are well under way," Frank Stroh, the union's spokesmansaid.
Strikes cost an average 945 euros (US$864) in sales per day and worker, the IW economic institute estimated. "Even if companies were to catch up with the lost work hours, overtime work would boost costs and weaken the competitiveness of the export-dependent industries," the institute said in a faxed statement.
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