PRESS RELEASE IG Metall kicks off steel industry collective bargaining round: Securing employment, real wages, and skilled workers!

Frankfurt am Main – Start of collective bargaining for workers in the German iron and steel industry: To preserve good jobs, IG Metall is demanding that employers guarantee real wages and employment. The union’s executive board made this decision on Friday.

IG Metall’s collective bargaining director, Nadine Boguslawski: “We are fully aware of the situation. We want to—and must—secure employment, real wages, and skilled workers. Companies should also have an interest in this.” She added that employers and policymakers now have a responsibility not to jeopardize the industry’s future in Germany. “We want to prevent the bleeding out of Germany’s key industries and their employees at every level. Through collective bargaining agreements, we are thinking and acting with an eye toward the future,” said Boguslawski.

Employees at companies in crisis are already making sacrifices

The wage demand is not specified. “This means: no wage freeze, but full purchasing power for our colleagues and the economy,” Boguslawski explained. Companies should also make use of collective bargaining options to secure jobs.

The union expects the federal government to quickly implement an industrial electricity rate to ease the burden on the steel industry, and it expects Brussels to adopt a European local-content policy in response to the tariff crisis and cheap steel imports. The special investment fund must be quickly channeled into tangible projects. This would also help the domestic steel industry.

Boguslawski: “Challenges such as tariffs or climate protection fall under the responsibility of policymakers. Their task is to establish a positive framework for a sustainable steel industry and its jobs.” Employees must not be the ones to suffer: “In negotiations for job security at crisis-stricken companies, employees have already made sacrifices up front. They need a guarantee in a new collective bargaining agreement that their standard of living will not deteriorate.”

The first round of collective bargaining for the “Northwest” and “East” regions will take place on September 16 in Düsseldorf. The no-strike clause expires on September 30; warning strikes are possible thereafter.

Across Germany, 82,000 workers in the steel industry are covered by collective bargaining agreements. The upcoming negotiations initially affect 68,000 steelworkers, primarily in northwestern and eastern Germany. Collective bargaining for the Saarland will begin in mid-November.

Note to newsrooms: The negotiations are being led by the IG Metall regional chapters. Regional press contacts:

• IG Metall North Rhine-Westphalia: Mike Schürg, +49 211 45484 162, mike.schuerg@igmetall.de
• IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony: Markus Sievers, +49 30 253750 45, markus.sievers@igmetall.de