Frankfurt am Main – The first nationwide warning strike week in the collective bargaining conflict in the metal and electrical industry comes to an end with a high level of employee mobilization: Despite Corona and the associated restrictions, more than 227,300 employees took part from Tuesday (12 a.m.) to Friday (2 p.m.) with well over 500 actions at the warning strikes. It was their aim to underline the collective bargaining demands and thus induce employers to make a fair offer. IG Metall sees the high number of participants as a clear sign of its ability to act, even in times of pandemic.
Today, Friday, 52,100 employees from more than 200 companies across Germany responded to IG Metall’s call for a warning strike (as of 2 p.m.). On Friday afternoon and evening, more companies and shifts start their warning strikes. The number of participants from Thursday had risen by a further 12,000 employees by late Thursday evening.
The focus of the warning strikes on Friday was in the Baden-Württemberg district. Around 29,330 employees from 90 companies stopped working there for a short time. It was the climax of the warning strikes in the southwest so far. Around 200 employees took part in a demonstration at the medical technology company Aesculap in Tuttlingen. In addition, employees from numerous companies ended their work prematurely: At ZF in Friedrichshafen around 4,000, at SEW Eurodrive in Bruchsal around 1,900, at E.G.O. Electrical devices in Oberderdingen around 1,000 and at Mercedes-Benz in Sindelfingen around 10,000.
In the district of Bavaria, 11,300 employees from almost 50 companies went on strike. A regional focus of the warning strikes today was in the Upper Palatinate. In the Siemens equipment factory in Amberg alone, 1,260 employees had finished their work earlier by noon today. Further layers follow here.
Around 4,770 employees went on a warning strike in the IG Metall district of Mitte (Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Thuringia, Saarland). Here 26 companies were affected. Employees from all federal states belonging to the district took part in some with early-closing campaigns and some with rallies in front of the factory gates.
Around 3,690 employees in the district of North Rhine-Westphalia briefly went on strike. 500 Gestamp employees took part in a rally by far in Bielefeld. 270 employees came to rallies in drive-in format in Lüdenscheid and 100 in Schwerte. At Schmitz Cargobull in Altenberge and Horstmar there was the largest early-closing action with a total of 1,000 participants.
In the IG Metall district of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, around 2,840 metal workers from 25 companies responded to IG Metall’s call for a warning strike.
In the Berlin Brandenburg and Saxony district, around 150 employees from 4 companies temporarily stopped working. Around 120 employees from GE Power, Stadler Germany and Stadler Rail Service took part in a rolling warning strike in Berlin. In more than 60 cars, they took their protest onto the street at noon. From Pankow they drove in a motorcade to the Haus der Wirtschaft in Charlottenburg.
The coastal district (Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Hamburg and Bremen) did not call for a warning strike today.
IG Metall calls for a future package with job security, future collective agreements for companies and a stabilization of wages for the more than 3.8 million employees in the metal and electrical industry in this collective bargaining movement. Specifically, IG Metall calls for a volume of four percent, which, depending on the situation of the companies, can be used to strengthen wages and training allowances or to finance measures to safeguard jobs. With future collective agreements, tailor-made operational solutions are to be found that contain commitments for investments, locations, employment and qualifications.