Press Release Nationwide warning strikes begin: A future, not restraint!

Frankfurt am Main – With the start of warning strikes, IG Metall is calling on employers in the metal and electrical industries nationwide to make significant concessions starting Tuesday night. Christiane Benner, President of IG Metall: “The employers’ meager offer fails to recognize the gravity of the situation. Our 3.9 million colleagues in the industry need more money. With this additional purchasing power, we’ll also strengthen the economy. Through warning strikes, we’re making it clear that we need to move forward now—for young people, too! We won’t reach an agreement without giving special consideration to young people. We want a future, not restraint.”

In the regional collective bargaining negotiations that have been underway since mid-September, IG Metall is demanding a 7 percent wage increase for employees over a 12-month period. In addition, an “attractiveness bonus” of 170 euros per month is intended to provide trainees with a disproportionately larger pay increase. In response, employers have offered, as their initial proposal for a 27-month term, a wage increase of 1.7 percent starting in July 2025 and 1.9 percent starting in July 2026.

IG Metall collective bargaining chairwoman Nadine Boguslawski: “Employees are now using warning strikes to push back against the constant price pressure they face at the checkout counter: to demand a swift and substantive solution. Wage restraint solves nothing; it only exacerbates the state’s problems.” In addition to higher wages, IG Metall is also advocating in the negotiations for better options to choose between time off and pay, a social component, and “democracy time” at the workplace.

At a rally in the early hours of October 29, collective bargaining board member Nadine Boguslawski will kick off the warning strike phase at Volkswagen in Osnabrück (October 29, 12:01 a.m., Karmannstraße 1, 49084 Osnabrück).

Executive Board member Hans-Jürgen Urban will support the workers’ walkout on Tuesday at Rolls-Royce in Oberursel (9:00 a.m., Hohemarkstraße 60-70, 61440 Oberursel/Taunus).

Together with several thousand apprentices from all over Bavaria, IG Metall President Christiane Benner will speak on Tuesday in Ingolstadt at a demonstration (10:30 a.m., Audi Ingolstadt, intersection of Gate 11 and Ettinger Straße, 85057 Ingolstadt) and a rally (Hindemithstraße parking lot).

The third round of negotiations for the metal and electrical industries will continue through November 5.

Note to newsrooms: A schedule of regional negotiation dates for the IG Metall districts and press contacts can be found here.