From today on, IG Metall and employers are negotiating collective bargaining conditions in the metal and electrical industries - all this in the face of international crises and rising inflation. Around 3.7 million employees in various sectors such as automobiles, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and defense equipment are affected.
What is the union demanding?
After a complex process, the regional collective bargaining commissions and the federal executive board of IG Metall agreed at the end of September on a demand for five percent more money over a period of twelve months. At the same time, the security of jobs and locations must be negotiated, says chairwoman Christiane Benner in view of the threat of factory closures.
The union also wants employees in so-called “boom companies” to share in the profits. IG Metall highlighted that, according to union surveys, the order backlog in two thirds of the companies was “good or very good”. There is currently a boom, particularly among manufacturers of ships and rail vehicles as well as in medical technology, aerospace and the armaments sector, in which employees also have to be involved.
In the previous round of collective bargaining, IG Metall entered the negotiations with a demand for seven percent more money. An increase of 5.1 percent was ultimately achieved in two stages - but over a period of 25 months.
How are employers reacting?
The employers' associations have already rejected the demand. Gesamtmetall sees no scope for distribution and points to the increased deindustrialization with the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in recent years. Employers point to around 350,000 job cuts since 2019 and a continued decline in production. One of several reasons for the poor situation is the high labor costs.
Many companies are doing badly, says the new Gesamtmetall President Udo Dinglreiter and sets the line: "We don't have the luxury of negotiating the distribution of increases in the coming collective bargaining round. Now it has to be about reducing costs and saving the location."
Company representatives at car heavyweight Mercedes-Benz, for example, have gone even further and have called for a return to 40 hours of work per week without wage compensation. However, the 35-hour week is not up for discussion in the collective remuneration agreement.
How are the affected sectors doing?
The economic situation is very different, which makes it even more difficult to reach an agreement in Germany's largest collective bargaining system. Business in the electrical industry is going well, and other vehicle construction is currently experiencing a debt-financed boom with defense equipment. Medical technology and aerospace companies are also doing well, says IG Metall based on a member survey. However, according to Gesamtmetall, the minority of affected employees work in these industries.
The majority of the 3.7 million employees are employed in companies that are currently doing poorly. The automotive industry in particular is in deep crisis due to increasingly fierce competition from China and sales problems, which could culminate in factory closures.
The employees of the ailing Volkswagen AG are excluded from the collective bargaining agreement because their own collective agreement is being negotiated for them. On the other hand, the employees of the VW subsidiary Audi and its competitors Mercedes-Benz and BMW are in the area.
How are the negotiations going?
Collective bargaining begins in regional rounds, starting today in the districts of Southwest and North Rhine-Westphalia. In an informal procedure, both sides see where rapprochement seems possible. If a pilot district emerges, negotiations will be completed there on behalf of the district.
The central units can also get involved, i.e. the Gesamtmetall umbrella association in Berlin and the board of IG Metall in Frankfurt. If there is a result, this will be rolled out to the other tariff areas in the following days.
The deals in the recent past almost always came from the IG Metall districts of Baden-Württemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria with large memberships. In 1997, Lower Saxony was the last time one of the smaller units took part. In 2024, the collective bargaining partners had abandoned the usual pattern and reached a conclusion in joint negotiations in the coastal and Bavarian collective bargaining areas.
Will there be strikes?
Comprehensive warning strikes involving hundreds of thousands of people are more the rule than the exception in the metal and electrical industries. IG Metall regularly uses the time-limited strikes to mobilize old and new members. The current collective agreements expire on October 31st. Warning strikes are then possible immediately because no subsequent peace obligation has been agreed.
However, indefinite strikes with a prior strike vote are rather unlikely. Although IG Metall always emphasizes its full strike fund, it rarely takes this final step.
However, she emphasized her determination before collective bargaining began. The willingness to fight is significantly higher than in previous years, said the district manager of IG Metall North Rhine-Westphalia, Knut Giesler, in Düsseldorf. Giesler is the negotiator for the North Rhine-Westphalia tariff district. “We have also significantly shortened our deadlines for escalation scenarios within IG Metall.”
