Press Release No. 14/2018 IG Metall steps up pressure with more than 85,000 warning strikers

Frankfurt am Main – IG Metall has increased pressure on employers with massive warning strikes. By early afternoon (2 p.m.), more than 85,000 workers from over 400 companies had participated in brief work stoppages, rallies, and warning strike actions. Since the end of the peace obligation, approximately 730,000 workers nationwide have gone on strike, IG Metall announced Tuesday in Frankfurt. Further warning strike actions are planned for the afternoon and evening.

The warning strikes were concentrated in Baden-Württemberg, where approximately 30,000 workers from 126 companies took part. In Aalen, around 5,400 warning strikers gathered for a rally. Around 2,000 metalworkers took part in a day of action in Bietigheim, and over 1,200 warning strikers gathered in Heilbronn.

In North Rhine-Westphalia , over 26,600 workers from more than 160 companies briefly walked off the job. In Cologne, the largest rally took place in front of the Ford plant gates, with nearly 9,800 warning strikers.

In Bavaria , nearly 13,500 workers from 60 companies took part in warning strike actions. In Augsburg, 5,000 warning strikers from 24 companies gathered for a rally, including workers from MAN Diesel & Turbo SE, Premium AEROTEC, KUKA, and manroland web systems. At Bosch in Bamberg, 2,300 early-shift workers briefly walked off the job. Additional warning strikes took place in Munich, involving 3,500 metalworkers from 23 companies.

More than 12,000 workers from over 50 plants in the Mitte district ( Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and Thuringia) briefly walked off the job. Jörg Hofmann, President of IG Metall, addressed a rally at Daimler in Wörth in front of approximately 3,500 warning strikers. Christiane Benner, Second Chair of IG Metall, addressed 3,000 workers from several plants in northern Hesse who gathered for a joint rally following a march through downtown Kassel.

In the IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony district, more than 2,300 metalworkers from 7 plants heeded IG Metall’s call. In Leipzig, Wolfgang Lemb, Executive Board Member of IG Metall, addressed approximately 1,300 workers from 3 plants during the warning strike in front of the Porsche plant.

In Lower Saxony , more than 400 metalworkers from three plants went on a brief strike.