IG Metall district manager Jörg Köhlinger has accused employers of a “lust for ruin” with regard to the ongoing collective bargaining. In previous discussions they had “acted as if the only reason for the misery was pay policy,” said the negotiator for IG Metall in Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland on Thursday at a protest rally in Mainz. About 2,500 employees from all of them According to the police, three federal states followed the union’s call to demonstrate for a wage increase of seven percent before the third round of negotiations in the afternoon. The participants, including employees from Siemens, Opel and the automotive supplier Continental, marched from the Mainz-Kastel train station in Wiesbaden over the Theodor Heuss Bridge to the banks of the Rhine in Mainz. Employers: Productivity is stagnating Köhlinger called for solidarity for Volkswagen employees who are facing the closure of up to three plants in Germany. In negotiations over a new collective agreement for VW, the group demanded a ten percent cut in wages. But even in the negotiations over the collective agreement that was at issue in Mainz, employers and employees are far apart. After the meeting, which remained without rapprochement, both parties accused the other side of showing no willingness to compromise. The employers’ associations repeated their offer to increase wages by 1.7 percent in the summer of 2025 and by a further 1.9 percent a year later to raise. “We are in a massive structural and economic crisis. A turnaround in the economic downturn in Germany is far from being in sight,” said the negotiator for the metal and electrical companies in the Mitte collective bargaining district, Ralph Wangemann. “We have to strengthen our location, and that cannot be done on the streets and with strikes, but only at the negotiating table.” Not only VW, but also suppliers such as Continental and ZF have announced the reduction of thousands of jobs. More than 600 jobs are to be cut at the Frankfurt Continental location in the Rödelheim district alone. An employee of the Frankfurt plant said at the demonstration in Mainz that brake production was at full capacity. While jobs would be cut in administration and development departments, employees would be sought for production. Against this background, he sees no reason for restraint in wage demands. “We have some catching up to do,” he said, referring to the high inflation rates of recent years. According to IG Metall, most metal workers in Hesse are assigned to pay group 6, where the basic salary is 3,439 euros per month. More on the subject A long-time Opel employee told the F.A.Z.: “Even if we don’t demand higher wages, the jobs will be cut anyway “We’ve been seeing this at Opel for 20 years now.” In fact, up to 1,000 employees at the car manufacturer are to receive severance payments this year, and employment guarantees for the remaining workforce will be extended until mid-2029. The Opel parent company Stellantis is using an option that was agreed with IG Metall in 2020. IG Metall district manager Köhlinger argued that the industry’s problems were primarily due to high energy costs. He called for a subsidized industrial electricity price.
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