Frankfurt am Main – IG Metall has ramped up pressure on employers with massive warning strikes to demand a 5 percent pay increase: As of early afternoon (3 p.m.), approximately 120,000 workers from more than 500 companies in the metal and electrical industries had participated in walkouts, rallies, and early-closing actions. Since the end of the peace obligation, more than 530,000 warning strikers nationwide have walked off the job, IG Metall announced Tuesday in Frankfurt. Further warning strike actions are planned for the course of the afternoon and evening.
The warning strikes were concentrated in Bavaria. There, approximately 44,000 workers from more than 80 companies took part in rallies and warning strike actions. In Ingolstadt alone, more than 15,500 workers from 15 companies went on strike. In Nuremberg, over 10,000 warning strikers from 24 companies took part in early-closing actions, warning strikes, and rallies. In Augsburg, more than 8,000 metalworkers from 25 companies, and in Munich, around 4,500 workers from five companies, heeded IG Metall’s calls for warning strikes.
On the day of action organized by the IG Metall “Küste” district , approximately 38,600 workers from 150 plants participated . In many cities in northern Germany, participants marched in processions to the rally sites. The largest rally took place in Hamburg, with 4,000 warning strikers. In Hamburg, a total of 19,900 workers from more than 40 companies went on strike. In Bremen, approximately 5,400 workers from 18 companies heeded IG Metall’s call. In Schleswig-Holstein, 6,300 workers from 45 companies took part in warning strike actions. In northwestern Lower Saxony, a total of 4,800 workers from more than 30 companies demonstrated in support of the demanded wage increase. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, more than 1,400 warning strikers from twelve companies walked off the job on short notice.
In Baden-Württemberg , approximately 20,000 workers from 160 companies heeded IG Metall’s call for a warning strike and temporarily walked off the job. In the Esslingen region, more than 3,700 workers went on strike. In Assamstadt, around 1,200 workers took part in a demonstration march, including 450 employees of the automotive supplier Magna Mirrors. Around 1,000 warning strikers from Stuttgart-area plants gathered for a rally in Stuttgart-Feuerbach.
In the IG Metall Central District , 3,500 workers on warning strikes from 27 plants in Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Thuringia, and the Saarland took part in rallies and actions. In Sulzbach, Saarland, around 1,000 workers gathered for a rally. In Zweibrücken, 800 employees from John Deere and Hager Electro took part in a rally.
In North Rhine-Westphalia , around 3,300 warning strikers from 30 companies briefly walked off the job. Rallies in Bad Berleburg and Hellenthal each drew 1,000 workers.
In Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt , nearly 3,200 workers from 25 companies heeded IG Metall’s call to strike. In Osterode, more than 1,000 workers took part in a central warning strike, and in Hildesheim, more than 800 workers went on strike.
In the IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony district , around 3,000 workers from eleven companies went on strike. In Saxony, around 1,700 workers gathered for rallies outside the factory gates of Porsche (Leipzig) and Volkswagen Saxony (Chemnitz). In Berlin, 500 warning strikers took part in a rally at the Siemens gas turbine plant.
For more information about the warning strike actions, please contact the respective IG Metall district offices.
