Frankfurt am Main – Ahead of the collective bargaining negotiations scheduled for Wednesday in Baden-Württemberg, IG Metall has stepped up warning strikes in the metal and electrical industries nationwide. As of Tuesday afternoon (2 p.m.), more than 30,000 workers from around 270 companies had underscored their demands for a 5.5 percent pay increase, as well as provisions for part-time work for older workers and for continuing education, through work stoppages, rallies, and early-closing actions. Further actions are planned for the afternoon and evening. Since the start of the warning strikes and the preceding actions, over half a million workers nationwide have demonstrated in support of their demands.
In Baden-Württemberg, over 13,500 workers from 150 companies took part in warning strike actions. In Stuttgart, around 2,000 workers from five companies, including the Bosch plants, demonstrated in support of their demands. At the Daimler engine plant in Stuttgart, 5,000 workers briefly stopped work. In Pforzheim, 350 workers from various companies took part in a warning strike. In Mannheim, 600 workers at Alstom Power gathered for a rally. Additional warning strikes took place in Albstadt, Pforzheim, Schwäbisch Gmünd, and Waiblingen, among other locations.
In Bavaria, over 6,800 workers from 70 companies took part in brief walkouts. The main focus was in Nuremberg, where 5,000 workers from various companies in the region—including Robert Bosch GmbH, Federal Mogul, ZF, Siemens, and MAN Truck & Bus—gathered for a rally. In Rosenheim, 450 workers from Kathrein-Werke KG and Krones AG went on a brief walkout. There were also warning strikes in Augsburg, Aschaffenburg, Munich, Marktheidenfeld, and Erlangen, among other places.
In the IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony district, approximately 4,900 metalworkers from twelve plants took part in warning strikes. In Berlin that morning, 600 employees of Siemens AG and 350 employees of Visteon Deutschland GmbH briefly stopped work. In Leipzig, around 2,800 metalworkers from Porsche GmbH and BMW AG demonstrated in front of the BMW plant. Additional warning strikes took place in Radebeul, Hainichen, and Sohland in Saxony. In Wusterland, Brandenburg, 70 employees at Mahle Ventilbetrieb went on a brief strike.
In the IG Metall Mitte district, around 4,700 employees from 33 companies heeded IG Metall’s call. In the morning, around 1,200 employees from several companies demonstrated in Offenbach in support of their demands. Additional warning strikes took place in Hesse, including in Darmstadt, Stadtallendorf, and Gießen. In Rhineland-Palatinate, around 220 workers at the KHS, Schuch, Stamm, and Kaibel & Siebel plants in Worms heeded IG Metall’s call. There were also work stoppages and rallies in Frankenthal, Rheinböllen, Holzhausen, and Landau, among other places. In Thuringia, workers from Jena, Geisa, and Erfurt took part in warning strikes.
In the IG Metall district of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, nearly 300 workers from three plants in Wolfenbüttel and Braunschweig heeded IG Metall’s call.
