Labor market: “No basis for serious compromise”: Metal tariff round faces further escalation

Berlin. The deadlocked collective bargaining agreement for the approximately 3.7 million employees in the metal and electrical industry continues to escalate. The IG Metall board approved so-called 24-hour warning strikes on Thursday. The regional collective bargaining committees had applied for it the day before.

“The employers want to turn this collective bargaining round into a fundamental dispute,” said the first chairwoman of the union, Christiane Benner, explaining the decision. It's no longer just about money and jobs, but about the question of whether collective bargaining standards, co-determination and reliable rules will continue to apply in the future, said Benner.

The employers had already reacted to the regional collective bargaining committee's request with harsh criticism: "The fact that IG Metall is preparing industrial action measures now, in the worst economic crisis of the post-war period, which would be among the most massive in the last two decades, is in no way understandable," explained the general manager of the Metall NRW Association, Johannes Pöttering.

IG Metall has called for five percent more money over a term of the collective agreement of twelve months. In addition to a “fair wage increase”, the union is demanding job security and binding future prospects for the industry’s locations. The automotive industry in particular, but also parts of mechanical engineering, are in a serious crisis.