Germany’s powerful metalworkers union yesterday called for mass strikes over pay and working hours that could impact a key industry and the shape of labor nationwide.
IG Metall is not just asking for a pay rise, but also demanding the right for workers to temporarily switch to a 28-hour week to care for children or elderly relatives.
Employers say such a drastic change would be illegal and have threatened to go to court to stop the industrial action.
Photo: AFP
If the two sides cannot agree on the terms of the negotiation by late this month, the stage could be set for more damaging walkouts.
So-called “warning strikes” are a familiar feature of the annual collective bargaining process, with workers downing tools for a few hours to demonstrate at factory gates and in town squares, but there has been no nationwide, open-ended strike since 2003.
IG Metall expects up to 700,000 to participate in the ritual, running for at least a week. Strikes are expected to stretch from Germany’s “rust belt” in western North Rhine-Westphalia state to Brandenburg, Saxony and Berlin and the hyper-modern car factories of southwestern Baden-Wuerttemberg.
Boasting about 2.3 million members, IG Metall is Europe’s largest trade union, representing workers of all kinds in industrial conglomerates like Siemens or Thyssenkrupp, steelmaking, the auto industry, electronics and textiles.
The sheer weight of the metal and electrical industries’ 3.9 million workers often draws other sectors along in its wake when it comes to pay deals — and this year’s showdown could make for massive changes.
Unions are demanding a pay rise of 6 percent this year, triple bosses’ initial offer of 2 percent.
However, some employee leaders are outraged at the response to their other headline demand — the right for workers to switch from 35 to 28 hours per week for up to two years, with the employer paying some of the salary shortfall and guaranteeing the right to return to full-time work.
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