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Warning strikes at VW: Employees defend themselves against wage cuts!
Warning strikes by IG Metall in the collective bargaining dispute at Volkswagen could begin on December 1st, as wage cuts are being demanded.
Warning strikes at VW: Employees defend themselves against wage cuts!
The situation is coming to a head: the peace obligation in the negotiations over the wages of around 120,000 employees at Volkswagen AG ends today at midnight. Warning strikes will be on the agenda from December 1st after IG Metall and the works council rejected VW management's proposals to reduce costs. According to union representative Thorsten Gröger, these warning strikes are “so urgent that the company cannot overlook them.” The massive wage cut of ten percent as well as the threat of factory closures and layoffs are causing considerable tension between employees and management vienna.at reported.
In another dramatic step, IG Metall has already called on tens of thousands of employees in almost 70 companies to go on warning strikes. At Audi in Ingolstadt alone, around 16,000 workers stopped work for a while. Other important companies such as Siemens and BMW are also affected, which the union would like to see as a strength in its negotiating position. Rallies and strikes are expected to continue to put pressure on employers who have so far been unwilling to meet demands for a 5.5 percent wage increase. Instead, employers have only offered 2.3 percent for extended terms, which is further hardening the battles, according to information from augsburger- Allgemeine.de.
Confrontation before the third round of negotiations
The upcoming negotiations on Wednesday will be crucial to prevent the conflict from flaring up further. If both sides cannot reach an agreement, the labor disputes can no longer be stopped. Jürgen Wechsler, the head of IG Metall in Bavaria, described these negotiations as the “last chance” for employers to present a fair offer. In the past, similar negotiations only ended in a compromise after a long period of dispute, which both camps now see as challenging, especially since the feedback from the federal centers gives little hope for rapid progress. So far there is a clear gap between the demands of IG Metall and the feedback from employers.