16.01.2019 Ι They are fed up with uneven, fluctuating wages and 40-hour workweeks. The employees of KMH-Kammann Metallbau in Bassum near Bremen demand a fair collective agreement. The management refuses and has hired “Union Busting” lawyers.
Now the employees of the pipe manufacturer are ready for a strike. They finally want a collective agreement with fair wages and salaries. Since the summer of 2018, IG Metall and the management have already negotiated six times. The goal: KMH should recognize the collective bargaining agreements of IG Metall for the metalworking trades in Lower Saxony. At the moment, the management alone decides when there is more money and how much.
Often several hundred euros are between the fees, for the same work. In addition, the 40-hour week at KMH applies. The collective agreement, on the other hand, provides 37 hours per week.
“Different wages for the same work, fluctuating monthly income and excessive working hours have encouraged the colleagues to organize themselves and demand a collective agreement,” Martin Bauerschäfer from IG Metall Nienburg-Stadthagen describes the situation.
Initially, negotiations between IG Metall and the management went well. A potential collective agreement should be introduced gradually, charges gradually raised to the level of the collective agreement and working hours reduced. With retroactive effect from 1 July 2018, the first adjustment step should take place.
In a first written offer, however, KMH-Kammann Metallbau let the cat out of the bag: the flat-rate collective agreement was only to receive 100% of the employees in 2030. A phased plan over twelve years was not negotiable for the members of IG Metall. On November 20, they entered the warning strike for the first time in the company’s history. More than 100 colleagues participated.
The pressure of the employees was effective. In the following negotiation, the management moved. But the crucial signature was missing. “You can not commit yourself today”. So the management ended the negotiation.
Warning strike for collective agreement: KMH-Kammann Metallbau in Bassum. Photo: Markus Wente
Management brings Union busting lawyers
And then the tone became suddenly rougher. KMH replaced the negotiator: the law firm “Schreiner und Partner”, known as “Union Buster”, took the helm.
“The entire process is designed by the management only to one goal: avoiding a collective bargaining agreement,” says Markus Wente, negotiator of IG Metall. “The law firm Schreiner und Partner should pave the way for this.”
What followed now is as if from the Union busting textbook: one-on-one talks with employees, group information over several hours, notice boards. The works councils were forbidden to use IG Metall logos. The colleagues were threatened with warnings when they inform themselves at the works council and leave their jobs. Warning strikers were noted on “blacklists” and a strike breaker even risked life and limb of colleagues by breaking the picket truck without warning.
The tip of the iceberg: the management conducts a written vote among the employees. They should decide whether they want a collective bargaining agreement with IG Metall, or rather an agreement between the management and an employee representation appointed by KMH – which of course would then have no real legal rights of codetermination.
“This is typical for the law firm Schreiner und Partner,” explains Markus Wente. “Works councils should be undermined with employee-friendly employee representatives and the union should be pushed out of the house, which would in fact mean the abolition of legally guaranteed participation and democracy in the company.” This can not be done with IG Metall. “
Negotiation at the end of January – if necessary strike
Another negotiation is planned at the end of January – with Schreiner and Partner at the table and thus completely open at the end.
“The management would be well advised to chase the lawyers of Schreiner and partners from the farm,” Wente calls. “Union-busting methods to reduce democratic rights have nothing to do with trusting cooperation and democracy in the workplace.”
The next few weeks will be crucial at KMH Kammann Metallbau in Bassum. The demand of IG Metall members remains: a legally secure and fair collective agreement must be forthcoming. If necessary, even with a strike.