Press Release No. 19/2016 IG Metall continues nationwide warning strikes with over 29,000 participants

Frankfurt am Main – IG Metall has continued its warning strikes in the metal and electrical industries unabated. By early afternoon (2:00 p.m.), over 29,000 workers from nearly 200 companies had demonstrated through brief work stoppages and rallies in support of their demand for a 5 percent wage increase over 12 months. IG Metall announced on Monday in Frankfurt that, since the end of the peace obligation, over 139,000 workers nationwide have participated in warning strikes. Further warning strikes are planned for the course of the afternoon and evening.

The focus of Monday’s warning strikes was in North Rhine-Westphalia. There, over 6,700 warning strikers from 71 companies took part in rallies and actions. 1,800 workers from 13 companies attended a rally at Bombardier in Netphen. 1,400 workers from Siemens and other regional companies also gathered for a rally in front of the historic town hall in Bocholt.

In the IG Metall Central District, around 5,400 workers from 30 companies in Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Thuringia demonstrated in support of their demands. At Daimler in Wörth alone, 1,000 warning strikers walked off the job at short notice.

In Baden-Württemberg , around 5,300 workers from 28 plants heeded IG Metall’s call for a warning strike. The largest warning strike took place in Zuffenhausen, where 3,000 metalworkers participated in a rally in front of the Porsche Museum.

In Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt , over 4,200 workers from 31 companies walked off the job at short notice. The focus of today’s warning strikes was in Osnabrück, with 2,000 workers participating; at Volkswagen Osnabrück alone, around 1,900 employees took part in the warning strike. In the Hanover region, around 860 workers participated in actions organized by IG Metall.

In Bavaria , around 4,200 workers from 13 plants briefly walked off the job. In addition to early-closing actions, there were warning strikes at Premium Aerotec in Augsburg and Airbus in Manching.

In the IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony district , around 3,000 workers from 15 companies heeded IG Metall’s call for a warning strike and temporarily stopped work for up to two hours. The focus of the short-term work stoppages was a day of action at Bombardier’s sites in Brandenburg and Saxony.

In the IG Metall Coastal District , more than 300 employees from four companies took part in warning strike actions.