Frankfurt am Main – Since the start of the warning strikes in the metal and electrical industries, more than 340,000 workers nationwide have demonstrated in support of their collective bargaining demands. “Over the past few days, 340,000 warning strikers have impressively demonstrated that they refuse to accept the meager offer and the inflexible stance of employers. They will continue to apply pressure with warning strikes next week as well. Employers must finally make more concessions at the negotiating table,” said Jörg Hofmann, President of IG Metall, on Friday in Frankfurt. On Friday, by 2:00 p.m., approximately 70,000 workers from 330 companies across Germany had participated in brief work stoppages, rallies, and early-closing actions. Further actions are planned for the afternoon and evening, IG Metall announced.
The focus of Friday’s warning strikes was in Bavaria. There, nearly 25,000 workers from 51 plants took part in brief work stoppages. During the warning strike at Audi in Ingolstadt, 4,000 metalworkers gathered outside the gates; at BMW in Regensburg, 2,800; and at BMW in Landshut, 1,050. In the Allgäu region, there were larger protests involving a total of 5,000 warning strikers, including at Robert Bosch in Immenstadt, Liebherr Aerospace in Lindenberg, Deckel Maho in Pfronten, and Voit Turbo BHS Getriebe in Sonthofen.
“Employers must finally make more concessions”
In Baden-Württemberg , by noon, around 11,000 workers from 108 companies had heeded IG Metall’s call. 350 metalworkers gathered in front of the ThyssenKrupp elevator plant in Neuhausen on the Fildern. An equal number briefly stopped work at Magna Spiegelsystem in Assamstadt, and 300 did so at Continental in Villingen-Schwenningen.
About 10,400 metalworkers from 70 plants in the IG Metall “Küste” district briefly went on strike. In Schleswig-Holstein, 7,100 workers took part in warning strikes and protests, including 1,200 at ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems in Kiel and 600 at Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft in Flensburg. Warning strikes took place in Hamburg at Diehl, Still, and Norderwerft, among others.
In the IG Metall “Mitte” district ( Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and Thuringia), approximately 10,400 workers from 48 companies went on a brief walkout. In St. Ingbert, around 2,500 metalworkers from several companies, including Voith Automotive and Festo AG, took part in a rally. In Bebra, more than 400 Continental employees gathered outside the factory gates, and in Germersheim, 300 employees from GLCF Germersheim did the same.
More than 5,500 workers from 28 plants in Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt took part in warning strikes. In the Salzgitter-Peine regional office area, 1,200 metalworkers gathered outside the Alstom plant and 1,100 at MAN.
In the IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony district, over 4,600 workers from eleven companies briefly walked off the job. The focus in the district today was on Saxony, with more than 4,200 warning strikers from nine plants. At Volkswagen Saxony, the Volkswagen Training Center, Schnellecke Logistics, SAS, and Radsysteme Mosel—all in Zwickau—more than 4,000 metalworkers from nine plants heeded IG Metall’s call. Around 350 metalworkers took part in the warning strike outside GE Power and Stadler Pankow in Berlin.
In North Rhine-Westphalia , 2,000 workers from 14 plants took part in warning strike actions. At Miele in Gütersloh, 500 workers briefly stopped work, while in the Arnsberg office area, 600 workers from four plants did the same.
