Press Release No. 09/2018 IG Metall: 33,000 workers are participating in warning strikes

Frankfurt am Main – As of 2 p.m. today, approximately 33,000 workers from 228 companies have participated in work stoppages, rallies, and early-closing actions as part of the collective bargaining dispute in the metal and electrical industries. Since the end of the peace obligation, a total of approximately 425,000 metalworkers nationwide have gone on warning strikes. Further actions are planned for this afternoon and evening, IG Metall announced on Tuesday in Frankfurt.

The focus was on Baden-Württemberg, where approximately 14,000 workers from 82 companies temporarily stopped work. At the Mercedes-Benz plant in Sindelfingen, 10,000 employees of the automaker took part in a warning strike. In Heidelberg, 800 workers from several companies gathered for a joint rally. In Tuttlingen, 600 metalworkers took part in a rally at the medical technology manufacturer Aesculap.

In Bavaria , over 8,000 workers from 30 plants took part in warning strikes and rallies. The largest action took place in Schweinfurt. Around 5,000 warning strikers from 19 plants, including Schaeffler, Bosch Rexroth, ZF, and SKF, gathered for a joint rally.

More than 5,000 workers from twelve plants briefly walked off the job in the IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony district. In Berlin, 2,250 metalworkers, including those from Siemens, BMW, and Osram, demonstrated in support of their demands. In Leipzig, 1,500 workers from Porsche Leipzig and the logistics company Schnellecke took part in a two-hour warning strike.

In North Rhine-Westphalia , approximately 3,300 workers from 82 plants heeded IG Metall’s call . In Siegen, 1,800 workers from 50 plants took part in rallies, and in Lohmar, 1,200 workers from 30 plants participated.

More than 1,700 employees from 32 companies took part in warning strike actions in the Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt district. Actions also took place in Lehrte, Osterode, and Hanover.

In the IG Metall Central District ( Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and Thuringia), around 1,300 workers from nine companies briefly walked off the job by noon. In Koblenz, around 700 metalworkers from six plants took part in early-day walkouts and rallies. 300 workers at the Fritz Winter iron foundry in Stadt-Allendorf demonstrated in support of their collective bargaining demands.