PRESS RELEASE NO. 21/2021 IG Metall Executive Board: Clear Support for Demand for Collective Bargaining Equalization Payment

Frankfurt am Main – In an extraordinary meeting late Thursday evening, the IG Metall Executive Board strongly condemned the employers’ obstructionist stance in the IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony district. Since the demand for a collective bargaining adjustment payment remains unresolved here, the Executive Board resolved to continue authorizing 24-hour warning strikes in these bargaining regions until the regular Executive Board meeting on May 4, 2021.

Employees in eastern Germany still work three hours per week more than their western German colleagues without pay. On an hourly basis, this amounts to an 8.5 percent wage gap compared to the west. “After more than 30 years of political unity, it is high time to close this gap,” demanded the president of IG Metall.

In the collective bargaining dispute for the metal and electrical industry, the bargaining parties in North Rhine-Westphalia reached an agreement on March 30, 2021 [more info: Pilot Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Metal and Electrical Industry in the NRW District]. With the exception of the collective bargaining areas in the IG Metall Berlin-Brandenburg-Saxony District, all collective bargaining areas have since adopted the pilot agreement—in some cases with slight regional variations. At its special meeting, the Executive Board approved these negotiation results. As a result, the agreements are now in effect in these bargaining areas. The same applies to the outcome of the collective bargaining negotiations for Volkswagen AG.

Further information and press photos by Jörg Hofmann