The union IG Metall is using the first opportunity in the collective bargaining dispute to launch a large-scale wave of warning strikes. The union announced on Monday that warning strikes in the night shifts, rallies and other actions in companies in the metal and electrical industries are planned nationwide on Tuesday night, when the peace obligation expires.
“The meager offer from employers ignores the seriousness of the situation,” said IG Metall chairwoman Christiane Benner (56) in Frankfurt. The 3.9 million employees in the industry needed more money. “With the additional purchasing power, we are also strengthening the economy.”
Benner himself will speak before the on Tuesday Audi-Factory gate in Ingolstadt, where trainees from all over Bavaria are supposed to meet for a warning strike. IG Metall rejected an initial offer from the employers as “too little, too late and too long”. The union is demanding wage increases of 7 percent over twelve months. The trainees should receive a flat rate of 170 euros more.
The regional employers’ associations, on the other hand, only want to increase wages and salaries by 1.7 percent in July 2025 – after nine zero months – and by a further 1.9 percent a year later. They see large parts of the industry – especially the automotive industry – in a structural crisis that does not allow high wage increases.
“Wage retention doesn’t solve anything, it just exacerbates the country’s problems,” countered IG Metall collective bargaining officer Nadine Boguslawski. She will speak at a rally at midnight on Tuesday Volkswagen– Plant in Osnabrück, which is subject to the area tariff and not the VW company tariff.
The aim of the warning strikes is to quickly reach a result, said district manager Daniel Friedrich from IG Metall Coast. The negotiations will enter their third round on Tuesday in Kiel – accompanied by warning strikes and actions at, among others, Airbus in Varel and Nordenham and at Siemens Gamesa in Cuxhaven. Negotiations will also continue in Bavaria on Wednesday in Munich.